Action Research in Policy Analysis Critical and Relational Approaches to Sustainability Transitions

Today’s pressing political, social, economic, and environmental crises urgently ask for effective policy responses and fundamental transitions towards sustainability supported by a sound knowledge base and developed in collaboration between all stakeholders. This book explores how action research forms a valuable methodology for producing such collaborative knowledge and action. It outlines the recent uptake of action research in policy analysis and transition research and develops a distinct and novel approach that is both critical and relational. By sharing action research experiences in a variety of settings, the book seeks to explicate ambitions, challenges, and practices involved with fostering policy changes and sustainability transitions. As such it provides crucial guidance and encouragement for future action research in policy analysis and transition research. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of policy analysis and transition research and more broadly to public administration and policy, urban and regional studies, political science, research and innovation, sustainability science, and science and technology studies. It will also speak to practitioners, policymakers and philanthropic funders aiming to engage in or fund action research.

1. Introduction: Action Research in Policy Analysis and Transition Research[Koen P.R. Bartels and Julia M. Wittmayer] Part I: Sustainability Crises and Actionable Knowledge and Research 2. Both Critical and Applied? Action Research and Transformative Change in the UK Water Sector[Emma L. Westling and Liz Sharp] Co-inquirer reflection by Chris Digman 3. Cooperative Research for Bottom-up Food Sovereignty and Policy Change[Bálint Balázs and György Pataki]A reflection on attending to content and process in participatory research for social change by Csilla Kiss and Borbála Sarbu-Simonyi 4. Transition Scientivism: On Activist Gardening and Co-producing Transition Knowledge ‘From Below’[Shivant Jhagroe] Co-inquirer reflection by Rutger Henneman Part II: Critical-Relational Heuristics for Action Research 5. Cultivating ‘Sanction and Sanctuary’ in Scottish Collaborative Governance: Doing Relational Work to Support Communicative Spaces[James Henderson and Claire Bynner]Co-inquirer reflection by Alison McPherson 6. Negotiating Space for Mild Interventions: Action Research on the Brink between Social Movements and Government Policy in Flanders[Erik Paredis and Thomas Block]Reflections on action research for the Transition Network Civil Society by Dirk Barrez 7. Soft Resistance: Balancing Relationality and Criticality to Institutionalise Action Research for Territorial Development[Ainhoa Arrona and Miren Larrea] From the scepticism of some to widespread hope: the experience of Gipuzkoa in actionresearchby Ander Arzelus Part III:Approaches to Critical-Relational Action Research 8. Lipstick on a Pig? Appreciative Inquiry in a Context of Austerity[Alison Gardner] Co-inquirer reflection by Liz Jones 9. Getting Unstuck: The Reconstruction Clinic as Pragmatic Intervention in Controversial Policy Disputes[Martien Kuitenbrouwer] Co-inquirer reflection by Karima Arichi 10. Exploring the Use of Audiovisual Media for Deliberation: Reframing Discourses on Vulnerabilities to Climate Change in Nepal[Floriane Clement]Reflections on farmers policymakers' roundtablesby Damakant Jayshi 11. Really Imagined: Policy Novels as a Mode of Action Research[Sonja van der Arend]Co-inquirer reflection by Martine de Vaan 12. Conclusion: Critical and Relational Action Research for Policy Change and Sustainability Transitions[Julia M. Wittmayer and Koen P.R.Bartels]

Koen P.R. Bartels is Lecturer in Management Studies at Bangor University, UK, where he teaches courses in public administration and qualitative research. He has published in leading journals, including Urban Studies, Environmentand Planning C, Public Administration, Public Administration Review, and International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, as well as a book Communicative Capacity (2015). Julia M. Wittmayer works at the Dutch Research Institute for Transitions, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. With a background in anthropology, she is interested in roles of and social relations and interactions between actors in sustainability transitions (governance).