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Action Research and Orders of Democracy

Swarthmore College, kgergen1{at}swarthmore.edu

In this article I lay out several premises of a constructionist orientation to action research, as such inquiry contributes to the unfilled hopes for sustaining value and creating new futures. To facilitate these developments a relational orientation to the creation of meaning is outlined, along with implications for revisioning the very idea of democracy. In this context we consider the contribution of action research to two orders of democracy, the first bringing people together into concerted action and the second necessitated by the fragmenting effects of first order democracy. In each case the contributions of action inquiry to a vocabulary of practice are earmarked. Such a vocabulary is now in but a chrysalis stage, but the long-term potentials are substantial.

Key Words: action research • democracy • qualitative methods • social construction

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