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Transforming Inquiry and Action

Interweaving 27 Flavors of Action Research

Boston University, USA

Bill Torbert

Boston College, USAtorbert{at}bc.edu

This article presents a conceptual typology of 27 different flavors of action research, underpinned by the dimensions of voice, practice, and time. This typology highlights how narrow a segment of reality is examined in most social science studies, as well as how fundamentally different the first- and second-person participatory study of the present and the future is from the third-person detached study of the past. We show that action research has multiple aims, including personal integrity and social mutuality as well as explaining empirical variance in intended outcomes. Far from diluting the positivist concern with validity, however, we argue that action research studies that include a greater proportion of the 27 types of methods are likely to account for more of the empirical variance in situations than do traditional social science studies.

Key Words: first-person research • second-person research • third-person research • presencing • timing

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