Research, Actionable Knowledge & Social Change: Reclaiming Social Responsibility Through Research Partnerships

A professional text written for social science researchers and practitioners, Research, Actionable Knowledge and Social Change provides strategies and frameworks for using social science research to engage in critical social and educational problem solving. Combining the best practices of critical analysis and traditional research methods, this professional text offers guidance for using the Action Inquiry Model (AIM), a transformative model that explains how to successfully conduct action-oriented research in a multitude of professional service organisations. The aim of the text is to encourage a new generation of research-based partnerships reforms that promote equity and access for underserved populations.

Topics discussed include:

The historical precedents for universities engaged in social change

The limitations of current social science theory and methods

The critical-empirical approach to social research

The issues relating to social justice within the policy decision process

The use of social research to integrate an emphasis of social justice into economic and policy decision making

Research, Actionable Knowledge and Social Change does not propose different foundations for social research, but rather argues that it is necessary to reconsider how to work with theory and research methods to inform change. This text can also be used by students enrolled in graduate and Ed.D/Ph.D Higher Education Leadership programs and graduate programs across professional fields including K-12, public administration, sociology, health, cultural studies, organisational development and organisational theory. It further offers students guidance for research design and dissertation research.