Action Based Research

What do we mean by Action-based Research?

The intellectual origins of the study of public administration and public policy lie squarely with the pioneering work of the English Fabian thinkers Sydney and Beatrice Webb in their classic studies of local government in England and poor law administration. The Webbs sought to combine rigorous social investigation with reformism based upon rational planning. The emphases that they gave to pragmatic ethical socialism and the importance of establishing a rational technocratic and meritocratic bureaucracy as an instrument of social transformation was given institutional expression with the establishment of the London School of Economics (LSE) in 1895 as a centre for training a meritocratic administrative cadre for governing a new Britain. The pragmatic linkage in Fabian thought between social investigation and political action resonates strongly in this proposal and is best captured in the following quotation from Benjamin Disraeli, 1804-1881, Coningsby (1844), ‘Conservatism discards Prescription, shrinks from Principle, disavows Progress; having rejected all respect for antiquity, it offers no redress for the present, and makes no preparation for the future.’ Disraeli’s scathing analysis of the plight of Conservatism in 19th century Britain can be applied in equal measure to much of the present scholarship on the study of public  administration and public policy – it discards prescription, shrinks from principle, disavows progress, offers  no redress for the present and makes no preparation for the future. In so doing, the public standing of the subject has declined, disrespecting the legacy of the great public administration scholars of the 20th century who are rarely even cited in contemporary research. It has thus become only too easy for government to ignore the potential contribution of public administration scholarship to public action and institutional capacity development. This institutional fatalism is at odds with the political climate of our times.

The Global Financial Crisis has discredited the neo-liberal model and heighted the importance of active government in advancing the wellbeing of the citizenry as the guardian of the good society. This is potentially a Golden Age for Public Administration both in the field of action and by implication for the field of theory.

The ANZSOG Institute for Governance addresses these academic and professional dilemmas through the development of a ‘reflexive’ approach to public administration which argues for the integration of the world of thought and the world of action through the creation of inclusive action-based research communities devoted to ‘enlightened’ prescription (see Figure 1). Action-based research refers to the production of research which has ‘explanatory’, ‘descriptive’ and ‘prescriptive’ objectives. It differs from applied research in two respects. Firstly, it includes practitioners in both the production and the analysis of research findings. Secondly, it aims to produce research which can immediately be integrated within decision processes. This approach recognises that academic knowledge about public administration should be used for its betterment not just because all that we do as scholars of public administration and public policy is rooted in practice but that because the defence of bureaucracy and the achievement of social progress demand it. Furthermore, engaging in ‘enlightened’ prescription founded on strong principles of inclusiveness, academic freedom and social scientific rigour helps to improve explanations and understandings of administrative and political subjects.