Action in action research - Illustrations of what, who, why, where, and when from an e-government project

Abstract

The core content of action research (AR) is being able to solve organisational problems through intervention and to contribute to scientific knowledge. The main emphasis when discussing AR has been on the "research part". In this paper we focus on "action part" of AR in order to generate rigorous research, to solve local problems and to deal with evident dilemmas in AR. Action elements are addressed by situations in a project on one-stop government e-service development. As a result of the analysis action is illustrated. Action elements: action, actor, motive, space, time are analysed together with roles. The paper also shows a need to understand initiation, problem and situation addressing as an ongoing process in an AR project. A breakdown in the project is also highlighted and situations where problems discovers the action researcher and vice versa. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.