Enhancing the Reach of Action Research - IJAR Symposium 2024

General Presentation

Collaboration among different stakeholders and the integration of various sources and types of knowledge are crucial for effectively addressing current societal and environmental crises. Action research presents a promising yet largely untapped approach to generating meaningful solutions involving community members, practitioners, and researchers. Despite the significant knowledge generated by and with communities through studies, reflective processes, or evaluations, their contributions often remain undervalued and confined within specific projects. This lack of recognition extends to academic work and researchers engaged in co-generative and transformative processes with societal actors.

Are you interested in sharing insights and learning about how collaboration among actors within, at the margins, and outside academia can enhance the reach and recognition of action research to address societal challenges? 

We cordially invite you to participate in the 7th Symposium of the International Journal of Action Research, taking place on October 24^th and 25^th, 2024. Organized in collaboration with the CRISES (Center for Research on Social Innovations), the event offers both in-person sessions in Montreal (Canada) for local stakeholders and an online component for international participants from across the world. This format aims to ensure an engaging experience for all while also considering the climate crisis. Additionally, we are pleased to announce that a virtual PhD seminar will be held on October 22nd or 23^rd for doctoral students. 

Through the IJAR Symposiums, we aim to gather action researchers across the world around critical questions of the field. Previous editions were hosted in Turkey, Spain, Brazil, Columbia, and Norway.

Organizing committee: Isabel Heck (IJAR and CRISES/Université du Québec à Montréal, Montreal), Malida Mooken (IJAR and University of British Columbia, Okanagan), Baptiste Godrie (Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke), and Patricia Canto-Farachala (IJAR and Orkestra/Universidad de Deusto, San Sebastian).

How to participate

We will hold roundtable discussions and workshops to encourage discussions and collective learning, instead of traditional paper presentations or parallel sessions.

Most activities will be held either virtually for the international participants (roundtables in English; workshops/group discussions in English, and in French, Spanish, and other languages upon request) or in person only, for the participants in Montreal (mostly in French). The organizers will ensure that key findings will be shared in both locations to build on the learnings of both platforms. 

If you are interested in participating in the IJAR 2024 Symposium please complete the registration form. You will be invited to join a virtual workshop on the topic(s) you would like to contribute to a few weeks before the Symposium so that we can get to know each other and design the sessions according to the interests of the participants. It is also possible to participate only in the Symposium.

Themes 

We suggest activities centered on the following three themes to enhance the reach of action research:

A) Action research recognition, education, and praxis in higher education: How to transform our institutions for the public good? (Facilitator: Malida Mooken). 

We are calling on action researchers to critically reflect on, share learned experiences, and reimagine higher education institutions. A lack of understanding, recognition, and support for action research persists in universities, in part due to the complex long-standing institutional culture, systems, and barriers. There is widespread discussion of the problematic monoculture and barriers but little systemic change. Research impact and tenure evaluation are still based on narrow metrics. Papers grounded in action research approaches still struggle to gain acceptance in mainstream journals, more so in some disciplines than others. Public funding and other resources are dwindling. Amidst an increasingly competitive environment, collegiality is at risk. Action research and action researchers remain, to a large extent, on the margins. None of this depiction is new. 

Action researchers work on change/transformation processes. Yet, relatively few of us have focused our attention and capabilities on facilitating change in and from within academic communities and institutions. Is it a lost cause? If we are to continue and strengthen our action research work with external communities and encourage new academic researchers to the field, the internal challenges need to be addressed. We invite action researchers and collaborators to discuss the possibilities for engaging in transformative action research processes within your own or partner institutions and creating space for action research to thrive.  

With the above in mind, join us in exploring topics of discussion relating to:

• Enhancing dialogue and recognition of action research and its transformative capacity within academic institutions as well as governments and funding agencies. E.g. How do we move action research from the periphery closer to the core, through praxis? 
• Rethinking and transforming higher education and partner institutions, for public interest. Can we transform these institutions through action research? Or are we better off with creating alternatives that sit outside (the main structures of) existing institutions?
• Strengthening action research education through collective initiatives. E.g. How do we get the required institutional support to develop resources, teaching pedagogies, and curricula to train future action researchers? What role can international/global networks play?
   

B) Connecting and communicating beyond our projects and showcasing the unique contribution of action research to societal transformation (Facilitator: Patricia Canto-Farachala)

We are facing unprecedented social and environmental challenges that call for connecting and scaling the array of learnings and methods that different action research communities are generating to address those grand challenges in their own contexts. Behind concepts like systemic action research, connectivity, responsible research communication and knowledge mobilization, among others stands the idea that action research can and should achieve large-scale change. More work is needed to continue breaking silos and strengthening networks. As prompts to discuss this challenge, we pose the following questions:

• What can we do to enhance networks and connections beyond our own projects? How are we communicating our learnings beyond our immediate research and practitioner communities? What are our main challenges and opportunities? (i.e. connecting AR communities across the global North and global South)
• How might we show our unique contribution to addressing societal challenges jointly defined with different actors in society? What can we learn from other fields like science communication, citizen social science and participatory communication? 
• How can the digital transition help to enhance networks, connect better and to showcase our unique contribution to societal transformation? What challenges do we need to address?

C) Decentralizing research and moving boundaries: recognizing knowledge producers outside academia and engaging researchers in transformative action (Facilitator: Isabel Heck)

Challenging the conventional understanding that knowledge production solely resides within academia and the researchers’ role is limited to knowledge production, we embrace the concept of decentralizing research in two distinct, yet interconnected ways. Firstly, we recognize and leverage the invaluable contributions of civil society organizations, social movements, and community groups in co-creating knowledge for social change. Secondly, we invite academic researchers to transcend the confines of traditional roles and actively participate in collaborative transformative action. We would like to explore how engaged or activist researchers, community-based researchers, chercheurs-praticiens and other hybrid roles offer avenues through which we can bridge the gap between knowledge production and action, thereby enhancing our collective contribution to social transformation. We would like to invite participants to address some of the following questions:

• How can decentralized and hybrid models effectively enhance our capacity to address societal challenges? What lessons can be drawn from our experience to inform future practice and scholarship?
• How to transcend the confines of traditional roles? What are the challenges involved in this practice (power dynamics, ethical challenges, etc.)? 
• What kind of boundaries, if any, do we need to distinguish the work of researchers and practitioners? What line, if any, shall we draw between scientific, experiential and practical knowledge?

The Symposium is organized in partnership and with the support of: