Participatory Action Research: Psychology and Social Change

Participatory Action Research provides psychologists with a way of putting their skills and training to work in support of positive social change while still contributing to the important work of knowledge generation within the field. This article summarizes the development of Participatory Action Research and reviews the theoretical justification for this practice as a valid form of social research. The basic tenets and practices of this approach are discussed and the potential role of Participatory Action Research in psychology is considered.     

Research as Social Action in the Aftermath of Hurricane Andrew

SUMMARY

A study conducted 14 months after Hurricane Andrew examined the long term impact of this natural disaster on the homeless in the hardest hit areas of South Florida. The effects of a natural disaster on the homeless has not been studied in the past. In addition, this study is presented to illustrate a model of social action research. The foundations for the principles of this model are rooted in the best scientific and social justice traditions. The principles are introduced and described using research methodologies that were utilized in this disaster study. How the findings contributed to changes in policy, procedure, and practice are highlighted.     

Action as a Text: Gadamer's Hermeneutics and the Social Scientific Analysis of Action

This paper argues that Gadamer's hermeneutics offers a methodological perspective for social and political theory that overcomes the impasse created by the dichotomy between the positivist and humanist approaches to social action. Both the positivists'attempt to replace the actors'subjective concepts with the objective concepts of the social scientist and the humanists'attempt to describe meaningful action strictly in the social actors'terms have been called into question in contemporary discussions. Gadamer's approach, which is based on the hermeneutical method of textual interpretation, offers an alternative to both the positivist and humanist perspectives. Gadamer argues that understanding a text involves the fusing of the conceptual schemes of author and interpreter. Relying on Ricoeur's analysis of the parallels between actions and texts, it is argued that this understanding of the process of textual interpretation can be profitably applied to the analysis of social action. This application, furthermore, provides a means of analyzing social action that transcends the dichotomy between the positivist and humanist approaches. Gadamer's approach legitimizes the imposition of the observer's conceptual scheme without denying the constitutive role of the social actors'concepts.     

Balancing Research and Action: Reflections on an Action Research Project in a Social Services Department

The relationships between social research, policy development and implementation are complex. External researchers are frequently employed by agencies to research their activities, with the expectation that the results will lead to organizational development. In some research traditions this takes place after the presentation of a final report. In the action research approach the two are integrated and action is a part of the inquiry process. Frequently, however, despite the best intentions of the commissioners and researchers, little action ensues. Influential factors, including issues arising from changes of key research personnel, shifts in organizational staff and roles, multiple agendas, and issues in presenting findings, dissemination and feedback dilemmas, are explored, using a case study of the introduction of care management in one local authority social services department. Finally, the usefulness of this type of research by an outsider in a context of very rapid change is assessed.     

社会行动:韦伯和吉登斯行动理论之比较

社会行动一直是社会学理论研究的一个主题,马克斯·韦伯首次揭示出人类社会行动的理性化特征,并按理性程度将社会行动分为四种理想类型,对于把人类的思维方式从神学中解脱出来发挥了重要作用.吉登斯作为社会理论发展的批判继承者,在对社会行动理性化反思的基础上,对社会行动内涵、无意识社会行动、行动的合理化、行动意外后果的应对等问题进行了全新诠释和分析.他把社会行动看作是一种持续绵延的行动流,是一种能动,并在有意识和无意识之间抽离出了一种实践意识,亦把社会行动分为本能行动、实践行动和话语行动,把合理化作为解释社会行动的依据,赋予了行动者更多的主动性,深化和发展了社会行动理论.就此对韦伯和吉登斯的社会行动理论进行比较分析,以期能够准确把握社会行动的研究趋势.     

Social Action Research and the Commission on Community Interrelations

The Commission on Community Interrelations (CCI) was officially launched in 1945 by the American Jewish Congress (AJC) with Kurt Lewin as its chief consultant. Its intent was to bring research to bear on religious and racial discrimination. Espousing the ideals of democratic social engineering, CCI's action research projects aimed for scientific credibility and social utility. This article examines CCI's development from 1944 to 1952. By the early 1950s, changes within the AJC and in local communities and increased legal and mass protest strategies for racial justice as well as changes within social psychology as a subdiscipline challenged the viability of CCI's action research programs.     

社会安全与高犯罪率--来自南京市的调查报告

自20世纪80年代初以来,我国的社会治安状况一再挑战着人们对安居乐业生活的追求,制约着我国现代化的进程.一般理论认为,社会安全的评估包括客观事实和主观评价(社会安全感),客观事实规定、制约着主观评价,即如高犯罪率必然导致低安全感.从微观角度讲,马斯洛的需要层次论认为,人的安全需要仅次于人的生存需要.     

社会转型期重新犯罪的综合治理

预防和减少刑释人员重新犯罪是一个 世界性的社会难题,也一直是我国社会治 安综合治理的重点之一。随着我国从传统的计划经济体制向市场经济体制转型,社会环境和人们的思想观念、生活方式等都发生了深刻的变化,社会犯罪包括重新犯罪的构成、特点、原因等亦出现了许多新变化。社会治安综合治理工作如何与时俱进,     

In the Footsteps of Kurt Lewin: Practical Theorizing, Action Research, and the Psychology of Social Action

How and why do people become actively involved in doing good for others and for society by taking action to respond to social problems? Such involvement can take the form of participation in volunteerism and philanthropy, community groups and neighborhood organizations, and social activism and political movements. To understand the dynamics of these processes of social action, I draw on coordinated programs of basic and applied research, conducted in field and laboratory settings, to illustrate the complex interplay between features of persons and properties of their environments in determining why some individuals become involved in social action, what sustains their involvement over time, and the consequences of such action for individuals and for society. Then, building on the messages of these programs of research, and the theoretical perspectives guiding them, I consider implications for social policy issues of relevance to individuals, groups, and society as well as the ways in which the social sciences can contribute to the effective functioning of society and the well-being of its citizens.     

Comparative Narratives: Some Rules for the Study of Action

The paper explores the concept of a Narrative which is defined as a connected structure on a set of constrained actions and forbearances. Explanation via Narratives is compared with explanation through variable centred methodology and an interpretation of correlations in terms of Narratives is also outlined.     

Social Change and Citizen Action

This paper explores the import of two selected philosophical/ theological perspectives, feminist theory and liberation theology, for social group work practice with citizen groups. Its purposes are to focus on the power of social beliefs and theoretical perspectives to shape the meaning of life circumstances and situations for populations, and either to provide support for group action, or engender resignation or cynical indifference. Social group work's philosophy of democratic participation and religious commitment to social justice produced a unity of purpose for practitioners. The identification and incorporation of facets of liberation theology and feminist theory offer more current and perhaps sophisticated frames for integrated practice. Both perspectives highlight the centrality of the participant's thinking, knowing and doing both for personal becoming and community renewal.     

Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives on Domestic Violence: Implications for Social Action

Theoretical and methodological paradigms used by researchers and applied workers to conceptualise domestic violence are examined, with particular emphasis on the implications for social action. It is argued that the gender assumptions underlying the theoretical framework adopted are often implicit, unacknowledged, and that when they assume equal power between men and women may do a disservice to female victims. We maintain that the consequence of discrepant approaches of professionals encountering domestic violence is insufficient dialogue between researchers and applied workers, reducing the potential for effective social remedy. Some resolutions of this dilemma are proposed; specifically, these concern the adoption of feminist paradigms, the importance of making victims more visible, and empowering women to overcome violent oppression.     

Research as Social Work: Participatory Research in Learning Disability

The social-work literature has already made links between socialwork and research, and has argued in favour of practitioner–research.This paper turns the argument around and looks at how researchcan come to look and feel like social work. This happens particularly,but not exclusively, in participatory research in the learning-disabilityfield, especially in auto/biographical or life-story research,where long-term research relationships are more in evidence.Drawing on the participatory research methodology literature,and her own oral and life-history research, the author exploresthe areas in which research comes to emulate social-work practice.There are, of course, practical and ethical issues to be addressedand, as the author concludes, safeguards are needed to clarifyroles and foster openness in research relationships.     

Social Workers' Orientations: an Action Perspective

Summary The established sociological approach to social workers' orientationshas led to a restricted picture of the day-to-day conduct ofsocial workers. Adopting a different perspective, the work discussedhere resulted in an ideal typology of eight orientations. Thearticle describes these types and refers briefly to some propositionsand conclusions that arise.     

The Potential for Social Action in Groups

This paper discusses the potential for social action and empowerment that exists in groups. The author identifies three assumptions that underlie such potential as well as conditions that are essential to support social action in groups.