Making a difference: co-inquiring connectedness through action research in a local citizens' initiative

Abstract

Increasingly citizens take initiatives and start activities at a local community level as an antidote against the social exclusion and polarization that they observe in society nowadays. How can we, as researchers sharing these concerns, support these kinds of initiatives? What kinds of research practices can make a difference by connecting across differences within a community? With this paper we aim to open up a reflection on possibilities for action research related to citizens’ initiatives. We first describe a concrete case in which citizens start up various local community initiatives and the way one of the co-authors was actively involved as researcher, then we present briefly the main ideas of action research in general, and finally we explore the challenges for action research in this case.