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Changing universities ! The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/1476750318757851
The dilemma of scope in journals.sagepub.com/home/arj
pluralistic environments
Miren Larrea
Orkestra-Basque Institute of Competitiveness,
University of Deusto, Spain
Abstract
The paper departs from the work of Davydd Greenwood and Morten Levin on the
transformation of universities through action research to raise the question of how
action research can be the engine of change in an organisational setting where conditions
are inimical to its practice. It shares some theoretical contributions that frame this chal-
lenge and proposes insider action research as a potential method to face it. The paper
then presents the case of Orkestra-Basque Institute of Competitiveness and its impact in
changing the University of Deusto. The case focuses mainly on how this institute has
developed insider action research. The case, connected to the previously presented the-
oretical framework, is used for discussion purposes and to pose what the author terms
the dilemma of scope of action research in pluralistic university environments.
Keywords
Insider action research, university, role duality
Introduction
Action research (AR) has been considered a promising approach to address soci-
etal challenges such as unstable economic systems, climate change and lasting
Corresponding author:
Miren Larrea, Orkestra-Basque Institute of Competitiveness, University of Deusto, Mundaiz 50, 20012
Donostia-San Sebastián, Gipuzkoa, Spain.
Email: miren.larrea@orkestra.deusto.es
2 Action Research 0(0)
poverty (Wittmayer and Sch€apke, 2014). Many of the action researchers who want
to contribute to solving these challenges work within a university, and its organisa-
tional setting either supports or hinders their endeavours.
The relationship between universities and AR was described by Levin and
Greenwood (1998, p. 103) as follows: ‘universities, as institutions charged with
the generation and transmission of knowledge, have created a variety of conditions
inimical to the practice of action research’. Almost two decades later, the same
authors proposed a way to overcome this situation when they argued that ‘action
research applied across the range of university organizational structures and
dynamics can produce radical and beneficial change for most of the stakeholders’
(Greenwood & Levin, 2016, p. 194). In a nutshell, AR can be used to change
universities. But a question emerges when we take both arguments together:
How can AR be the engine of change in an organisational setting where conditions
are inimical to its practice?
This paper focuses on one specific type of transformation in universities: the
development of AR as a pattern of relationship with the territory that democratises
knowledge production and fosters development. We approach AR as both the aim
and the means of change in a university. Consequently, the problem statement that
guides this paper is: In order to effectively do AR with territorial actors (AR as the
aim of transformation in a university), action researchers also need to engage in
change processes of their own university environments (AR as the means of change
in a university); however, the mechanisms involved in these change processes are
understudied. The research question that rises from this statement is: How do
individual action researchers connect to change in their university’s environment?
In answering this question, the paper contributes to a better understanding of the
relationship between organisational and individual dimensions in the endeavour to
develop favourable conditions for AR in universities. This understanding can be
useful for action researchers working in universities who feel that their environ-
ments are not always supportive of AR and who are ready to work to improve
such conditions.
The discussion in the paper is based on a ten-year process of developing AR at
Orkestra-Basque Institute of Competitiveness, a research institute within the
University of Deusto (a private university in the Basque Country, Spain). In
order to combine the organisational and individual perspectives and see their
interactions, part of the case focuses on how the institute and the university
have changed, and another part of the case is based on a personal inquiry process
of the author that focuses on her individual change process and its interactions
with change in the organisation.
The Orkestra case describes how AR has developed from 2008, when only two
people (one administrator and one researcher) openly proposed AR in the insti-
tute, to gain a relevant position in the institute, with 28% of the institute’s per-
sonnel involved in AR processes and 30% of the institute’s 2017 budget coming
from projects using AR. These projects are mainly connected to long-term AR
processes with two provincial governments, the regional government and the city
Larrea 3
council of the biggest city in the Basque Country. The stable continuity of all these
projects can be considered as an indicator of the quality and outcomes of the AR
being developed. Based on the learnings of these previous experiences, today the
institute is actively working to generate the conditions for this approach to grow in
other spaces of its university. Although goals are being achieved, the paper avoids
presenting the transformation process as straightforward or painless and instead
focuses on the dilemmas faced within it.
The writing style aims at balancing normative discourses and praxis. Normative
discourses can be expressed using sharp arguments and clear political agendas.
Praxis, by taking theory to ‘the mud of practice’ (Hajer & Wagenaar, 2003, p. 19),
usually looks more contradictory and requires more nuanced arguments.
All persons quoted have given their consent to the use of these specific fragments
and have received the paper so that they are aware of how their words are being used.
Theoretical framework
There are various concepts in the AR literature, such as community–campus partner-
ships or community–university research partnerships (Jackson, 2016; Seifer, 2016), that
address how action researchers engage with communities outside the university. But
less has been published about how action researchers work within the university in
interaction with other academic communities. The way in which AR generates change
at the university in order to construct a space for itself and how, simultaneously, AR
adapts to the university in order to survive remains, to a great extent, a black box.
Action researchers have published different interpretations of the university as a
context for AR. Some report unproblematic contexts that seem to contradict
expectations. Klocker (2012), for instance, reports that after worrying because
the literature on AR PhDs argued that the knowledge produced in this way was
not valued in academic settings, her experience was that supervisors, examiners
and departments accepted the legitimacy of her work without any problem. Huges,
Denley, and Whitehead (1998) and Maguire (2005) give a very different perspective
by reporting difficult situations encountered during their AR PhDs.
Dilemma is the term that Adler (2003) and Stevenson (1991) share when refer-
ring to university-based AR courses. Specifically, Stevenson (1991) refers to ped-
agogical, epistemological and political dilemmas.
For the purpose of the discussion section, this paper summarises the different
positions following Bradbury (2010, p. 95):
action research [. . .] lives more or less happily on the margins of conventional social
science departments and does this despite its critique of the very values, assumptions
and approaches that have grounded university research to date. It is tolerated more
and less depending on the context.
where (a) a “structure’ (that is, a specific division and coordination of labor) is created
that (b) operates ‘parallel’ (that is, in tandem or side-by-side) with the formal hierar-
chy and structure and (c) has the purpose of increasing an organization’s ‘learning’
(that is, the creation and/or implementation of new thoughts and behaviours by
employees). (Bushe & Shani, 1991, p. 9)
the discussion in this paper without considering some normative assumptions that
influenced me. Thus, this section presents some of these assumptions.
The first normative assumption in the case, which justifies the desirability of
AR, is the consideration that a university environment that sustains AR as one
strong approach is a university environment that democratises knowledge produc-
tion in the territory where it operates, enhancing at the same time the efficiency of
such knowledge in terms of development (transformation) of the territory.
In order to have AR as a strong approach, most universities need to change.
This is where the second normative assumption, expressed in the introductory
section comes into play: ‘action research applied across the range of university
organizational structures and dynamics can produce radical and beneficial change
for most of the stakeholders’ (Greenwood & Levin, 2016, p. 194).
Positioning this second assumption not as the centre of the argument but as a
follow-up to the first assumption is a substantial difference from Greenwood and
Levin (2016), who focus directly on the transformation of university. In the case
presented in this paper, the transformation of university is instrumental to the
process to democratise knowledge production in a territory.
What remains a black box in most normative discourses is how what
Greenwood and Levin (2016, p. 194) describe as ‘beneficial change’ is going to
be achieved. Greenwood demonstrates this uncertainty when he states, ‘We think
there is reason to believe that lots of trapped energy for democratic change exists in
these organisations [universities]. The issue is how to mobilise it’ (Greenwood,
2017, p. 187) or asks, ‘Can action researchers do this?’ and immediately answers,
‘It remains to be seen’ (Greenwood, 2017, p. 188).
However, the next normative assumption, inspired by Paulo Freire, helps open
the black box in the Orkestra case. If AR is to change the university, it needs more
power. Still, turning power structures upside down and thus transforming AR
from a minority to the new mainstream approach is not necessarily desirable.
Making an analogy with what Freire said about revolution, position gained by
AR ‘can be lost because of an arrogant excess of certainty on its certainties,
because of the consequent lack of humbleness, for the authoritarian use of its
power’ (Freire, 2008b, p. 234). Having a democratising normative approach
does not prevent AR from potential authoritarianism. If AR is to overcome its
actual situation of lack of power, which following Freire we could name as oppres-
sion, it cannot opt for a process where it becomes the new oppressor. It needs to
generate a process to liberate AR and ideologically opposed research approaches
together (Freire, 1996). This implies a dialogical relationship between different
research approaches.
Considering these three assumptions, I argue that the case presents a process in
which AR is used to transform universities. The aim of this transformation is to
gain more space, power and legitimacy for AR in one university as a means for
more democratic territorial development. But the goal is not to turn AR into the
new mainstream. The goal is to create a constructive tension between different
6 Action Research 0(0)
research approaches where their conflicts of interest are made explicit and none of
them can be imposed in authoritarian ways.
From this point of view, I consider the results obtained in the case as satisfac-
tory, but I am aware that readers with a different normative framework on how the
transformation of universities through AR should happen can interpret the fol-
lowing case in a different light.
(see the first normative assumption). This new approach required two main
changes within the institute:
In order to achieve these two goals, it has not been sufficient to change the
approach exclusively within the institute; thus, institute members are working in
three other spaces within the university:
These changes and the ones taking place inside the institute should be consid-
ered as different dimensions of the same process.
Greenwood and Levin (2016), but due to her research background and her efforts
to maintain her research activity, she experienced role duality.
She always presented the transformative mission of the institute as something
everyone should respond to. Although there were stages when she proposed AR as
the most effective approach to transformation, her discourse evolved toward the
consideration of AR as one solid way, among others, to be coherent with such a
mission. In the first stages of the institute’s development, she incentivised the
transfer of researchers focused on traditional approaches back to the university
and hired academics with practical experience in development processes that could
generate AR approaches. She integrated AR in the institute’s strategy as one more
option and supported internal training processes on AR.
The other individual is the author. I entered the institute in 2007 and have been
focused on developing AR since 2008. I characterise the role of researchers in
developing AR, but my commitment to organisational change (informally up to
2014 and with a formal designation as staff to the institute’s director since then)
has led me to also experience role duality. My role combines the coordination of
AR processes with stakeholders with the facilitation of insider AR processes to
develop AR.
AR with stakeholders (policy makers at local and regional governments) has
been ongoing since 2008. In addition, there are two stages (2008–2010 and 2015–
2016) during which parallel learning structures were created to develop insider AR
processes. The paper mainly focuses on insider AR processes.
We would like to consolidate an action research team at the Institute. Up to now the
approach to action research has been proposed by a team of researchers. In the future
we would like this to be something assumed by the Institute as part of its unique value
proposition.
Extract from the document ‘How we work together and how we want to work togeth-
er in the future,’ presented in Kristiansand, 4–5 February 2009.
Larrea 9
The document shows our desire to transform AR from being the initiative of some
researchers into part of the strategy supported by the organisation.
After the visit to Agder, we set a parallel learning structure with, on average, six
participants who showed interest in learning more about AR. It was the first
insider AR process in the institute. I facilitated this process, and the area coordi-
nator (later the general manager) participated in it. We had almost no experience
in AR, and the discussion focused on normative approaches in which the area
coordinator and I shared our assumption that AR was a better approach for the
transformative mission of the institute than the traditional research in the research
program. Even participants in the insider AR group rejected this assumption,
arguing AR was neither better nor worse than the other approaches for the insti-
tute. I assumed the normative discourse on AR worried them because it might
push them into changes they did not feel comfortable with.
The group operated through 2009 but stopped in 2010, when there were differ-
ing visions among the participants. Some researchers outside the group expressed
their worries about AR being considered a better path to transformation too.
The coordinator of the department recommended me not to continue with the
parallel learning structure. She suggested that the researchers who had openly
declared that they wanted to do AR should just develop it in specific projects,
without making it visible in the organisation. This move reduced normative dis-
cussions and strengthened praxis.
One of the innovations of Orkestra has been the construction of a new approach to
research (Action Research) [. . .] researchers develop a process with the actors that
own the competitiveness challenge and combining capabilities of actors and research-
ers, seek for innovative solutions for problems[. . .] this singular capability is named a
pluralistic approach to action research. (Extract from the document ‘Unique value
proposition of Orkestra’, 20 October 2014)
There is a small group of persons [in the institute] which is very committed to the
development of the Basque Country. You have a very strong sense of identity and the
will to preserve and transform this territory. You see AR as a path, as an instrument
for that purpose. Not everybody had this perspective in the group and consequently,
only a few could share your perspective to AR.
about choosing a position, [. . .] the discourse doesn’t fit for me, I don’t see myself as
someone promoting change and democracy, and though in practice I want to change
things, this discourse is too big for me, I don’t think I do things to promote social
change
12 Action Research 0(0)
Discussing the legitimacy of researchers to enter change processes, this same par-
ticipant argued:
When you ask yourself about the legitimacy of each participant, in my case I give
much more weight to what the politician thinks, [. . .] because they are elected, then,
my question is: which is the legitimacy [of the researcher]?
I don’t want to force AR in Orkestra, I am not drastic [. . .]. I think it should be open.
I think each person should be able to work with their own approach [. . .], respect
everybody’s place, for instance, if someone wants to do traditional teaching, that
person should be given the space to do it.
I could agree with many of the ideas in the quotes. What shocked me when I read
the transcriptions was my difficulty to understand why they were saying it as a
reaction to my proposal to discuss different approaches to AR. Even now reading
the words pushed, forced, legitimacy and respect makes me ask myself whether they
felt I was trying to impose AR on them or on others in the organisation. Another
thing that I realised was that this language was already there in the second work-
shop of the second insider AR process, which meant that it had its origin previous
to this process, probably in the first parallel learning structure, as AR had not been
part of the debate during the intervening period.
Discussion
In this discussion, I consider two main dimensions of the case in order to reflect on
the development of insider AR in university environments. One is the support for
Larrea 13
of the change process to experience role detachment, that is, feeling like an outsider
in both roles (Adler & Adler, 1987; Coghlan & Brannick, 2010).
These mechanisms reinforce the reflection of Greenwood and Levin (2016) on
the relevance of roles played by the administrative profiles in hierarchical positions
and on their relationship with researchers. But they also problematise this rela-
tionship, presenting role duality as a feasible situation and, consequently, arguing
that the two communities are not as neatly delimited as the reflection in terms of
subsystems might suggest.
Based on the previous discussion, I pose the dilemma of scope of AR in
pluralistic university environments: making AR acceptable for a critical mass of
university actors in order to use it as a path to transformation of the university can
require giving up some of the radicalness and critique implicit in AR. But when
doing so, we give up the very feature of AR that generates the capacity to trans-
form. The alternative is to give up scope in the organisation. But could we think
that AR can transform a university if it is confined into well-delimited micro
environments?
This takes us to the question posed in the introductory section: How can AR be
the engine of change in an organisational setting where conditions are inimical to
its practice?
Final reflection
It is reasonable to think that at some very important level – unless the academic
ecosystem values, supports, incentivises, and rewards AR – the social impact of the
AR approach is necessarily dampened.
Should we assume that AR should be the new mainstream in universities we
might interpret the dilemma in terms of the unavoidability of the dampening of
AR. But following the normative assumptions in the case, AR should be one more
approach in universities: strong enough to avoid the authoritarian imposition of
other approaches, but not strong enough to be itself imposed in such a way. From
this perspective, not full but relative valuation, supports, incentives and rewards of
AR by the academic ecosystem could be sufficient. This way, the dilemma might be
interpreted not as dampening AR, but as a mechanism to reach a constructive
balance between different approaches.
The case showed that insider AR processes can help AR gain support from the
academic ecosystem, but it was precisely in those processes when it ran the risk of
being domesticated (as in a dialogue process, AR influences other perspectives, but
other perspectives influence AR). This was accentuated by role duality, which
made positions less clearly delimited. This is the reason why AR needs spaces of
its own, which in Orkestra were provided by projects with stakeholders.
what is also to be learned from this paper is that conflict between individual and
organisational goals regarding AR is a natural situation in university environ-
ments, which sometimes concretises in the relationship between specific action
researchers developing their own path into AR and specific managers avoiding
Larrea 15
conflict in the organisation. The process of constructing agreements over this con-
flict can be the way to achieve the constructive tension between different research
approaches that is interpreted in this paper as a desirable result of AR in the
transformation of universities.
Acknowledgment
The author(s) would also like to thank Dr. Kent Glenzer for leading the review process of
this article. Should there be any comments/reactions you wish to share, please bring them to
the interactive portion of our blog on the associated AR+| ActionResearchPlus website:
http://actionresearchplus.com
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication
of this article.
ORCID iD
Miren Larrea http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4724-0015
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Author Biography
Miren Larrea is a Senior Researcher at Orkestra-Basque Institute of
Competitiveness and lecturer at the University of Deusto (Spain), University of
Agder (Norway) and National Technological University (Argentina). She leads
Zubigintza, an action reseach lab in Orkestra where she conducts long term
action research projects with various regional governments to develop collabora-
tive policy processes. She has published in international journals and books on
topics such as action research for territorial development, governance and policy-
learning.