The purpose of this paper is to investigate the implications of a culinary innovation process when adopting manufacturing industry concepts such as LPPD: Lean Product and Process Development. The action research structured in five steps (semi-structured interviews, process mapping, training, and implementation of a new process, process observation, and compilation/feedback of results) allowed the introduction of the LPPD in the culinary innovation process. Results showed that despite the innovation process of a restaurant being based on tacit knowledge, concepts from the manufacturing innovation process could be adopted. Findings can contribute to the multidisciplinary studies involving innovation, the hospitality industry, and the action research application on operations management.

lage savings and loan associations schemes have become one of the critical survival strategies amidst poverty, inequality and financial exclusion thus helping low income communities to ride out poverty and make their savings and to eke out a living. However, the use of scientific procedures by ordinary people when establishing such initiatives in their villages is under-reported. This study, therefore, sought to test the utility of the action research (AR) methodology in establishing a low cost village savings and loan associations scheme intervention, with a view to assessing the extent to which the scheme can improve the livelihoods of members of the scheme, and draw lessons for future interventions. The process involved planning, designing, establishing and evaluating a village savings and loan association scheme initiative involving 15 individual members (inclusive of the researcher) in ward 8 of Seke district, Zimbabwe. Results showed that creating village savings and loan associations is possible using action research, as community participation in the design, implementation and day-to-day operations of such initiatives guaranteeing ownership and control of the initiative by the host group scheme are almost natural to action research. One of the comparative advantages of using action research is that it creates spaces for ordinary people to share their experiences, reflect, and come up with context-specific solutions, as they take responsibility for their financial wellbeing, thus helping to meet their socio-economic needs and aspirations. The strength of village savings and loan associations is that they can be replicated. The study recommends that in the era of COVID-19, social distancing rules and regulations introduced to contain the virus should be observed.

Bibliography: Ennals, Richard: Introduction to Gustavsen’s “Action research and the problem of the single case”, IJAR – International Journal of Action Research, 1-2020, pp. 75-76. https://doi.org/10.3224/ijar.v16i1.06

The present study concentrates on the development of interactive skills in the L2 and the pedagogical aspects of Young Language Learners’ (YLLs) through the use of story telling. Such an approach reveals the benefits of encouraging creativity in learning and, as a result, captures the dynamics of the classroom and the progress of the learner. The data derives from an Action Research study carried out as part of a longitudinal study in South Western Greece, where storytelling is a neglected language learning source. The research concentrates on YLLs of a Beginners level, aged 7-9 years old. The results show the advantageous use of Action Research as a tool of intervention to apply necessary change in language teaching contexts.

While debates about the nature of ‘doctorateness’ are prevalent in higher education, what this might mean in the context of insider action research, where action research is undertaken by members of an organisation or community, has not received any attention. This article explores how an insider action research engagement in a thesis and core project generates a synergy between the actions, a deep discipline knowledge, competence in research through first, second and third person processes, and competence in presentation can serve as a foundation for doctorateness. The dissemination contributes to a community of practice and inquiry.

Scientific Agendas and Permanent Work Tables: two emerging concepts that summarise a position of science constructed over three decades of Participatory-Action-Research from CONICET and UNLP of Argentina. It is a science that, surpassing positions of status quo and allocating time for criticism, seeks to produce Theories of Transformation referring to possible territories. Two cases in progress, in an informal urbanisation and in an industrial and residential flood zone in La Plata, Ensenada and Berisso, Buenos Aires, Argentina, give meaning to two Agendas with their respective Tables: “Puente de Fierro Possible Territory” and “Territory, Industry and Environment”. The objective is to execute a science that brings closer the wishes of people with public policies in cases of high exemplary and replicability. The work is organised in three parts: what science, what agendas, what praxis, and a conclusion.

From the perspective of sociology of work, the article “New Challenges for Action Research” raises the question: How can dependent employees in heteronomous employment relationships fulfill their elementary need for self-determination, if the progressive economisation of the working and living world shapes their consciousness and even their identities? If utilitarian calculi supersede empathy and solidarity everywhere, and everyone is called upon to become a successful manager of himself under the pressure of so-called “self-optimisation” (Subjectification trap)? Research in sociology of work and experiments in action research show how dependent workers can escape from the subjectification trap by engaging in processes of collective reflection, and so reactivate their capacity for active and democratic participation, and for self-determined designing their working conditions to regain the ability to act and the power to independently shape their working conditions. Finally, it is asked if and how this process is possible under conditions of digital work in platform economics.

An interactive research strategy, a form of action research, was used in two environmental research projects. This strategy emphasises a balance between research and practice. Further, the method o ...