"The language of the book is eminently accessible to practitioners who may be unfamiliar with typical research parlance. Every procedure described is accompanied by step-by-step instructions. The novice will surely appreciate being helped at each juncture as well as the professional, who will find the details useful precisely because the approach differs so dramatically from what is normally found in a research methods text." --from the Foreword by Egon G. Guba Research takes place in many different settings besides the most obvious one--the academic community. Action research itself represents a type of research undertaken by workers in a wide variety of community, organizational, or institutional settings. Action Research provides a series of tools to assist the novice practitioner researcher in moving more comfortably through the research process. After defining and setting community-based action research into the context of qualitative research methodology, the book describes an uncannily simple but effective model for approaching action research: Look--building a picture and gathering information; Think--interpreting and explaining; and Act--resolving issues and problems.

Author Ernest T. Stringer concludes with issues of legitimacy surrounding this type of research and ponders the future of community-based action research. Action Research is the perfect text for professionals and students in research methods, sociology, evaluation and applied research, management and organization studies, and qualitative research.