The Action-Research Relationship

Once a project area has been selected, the procedure is for an action team to be appointed to the local authority’s staff and a complementary research team formed from within a university or polytechnic. A fundamental feature of the CDP, therefore, is the effort to combine action, research and evaluation. It is assumed that an experimental approach, using social science methods of inquiry and evaluation as a built-in support for social action, constitutes a useful addition to more traditional ways of tackling problems of social welfare. Thus the CDP anticipates an intimate and productive working relationship between administrators, field-workers, research-oriented social scientists and local residents. However, it is not self-evident that this relationship can be easily achieved. It is the purpose of this chapter to suggest some of the possible difficulties for a research team working in such a complex situation. To focus on problems is not to denigrate the value of community development as an experimental project. The aim is to promote constructive discussion about the role of research in this area of social policy. This emphasis may also make a modest contribution to the wider debate on what should be the relationship between social science and the formulation of public policy ( Cherns, Sinclair and Jenkins, 1972 ).