A Peek into the World of Action Research
A New Dissertation in Sociology
Maria Forsman, February 25, 2000
Arja Kuula's dissertation in sociology was examined in the
beginning of January at the Faculty of Social Science at the
University of Tampere. She works as a Research Officer at the
FSD.
 The dissertation "Action
research; fieldwork and aiming at change" deals with both the history
and methodic basis of action research and its everyday
practises. Arja Kuula has herself carried out action research and out
of this, her interest grew to study what action research actually is
and how other researchers have experienced it. The empirical part of
the study is based on 20 letters she had asked for and received from
other researchers. The letters tell a lot about researchers in action
research, their ideals and endeavours to make some things better They
also bear witness to the controversial position of the researcher, on
one hand in the community that is his or her object of study, on the
other, in the academic scientific community. The study also sheds
light into the contemporary world of the university, researcher
communities and the work of a researcher.
What then, is action research? Arja Kuula describes it as follows:
"Orientation towards practises, aiming at change and the participation
of those studied in the research process, are the features shared by
different action research studies. Despite these common aspects, the
theories applied or developed, the objects of study and posing of
questions may be quite different indeed." (p. 10) She emphasises that
action research is not a school of thought but a way to outline the
relationship between the reality of research and of the person
studied.
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