WWS is exploring relational and critical approaches to action research (Bartels & Wittmayer, 2014). Relational approaches that seek to build productive working relationships with local participants; senior and strategic management; and partnership institutions and stakeholders. Critical approaches that support a reflexive, inquiring culture; the mapping of dynamics of power and opportunities for empowerment within this context. (Crotty, 1998; Sayer, 2009; Hadfield, 2012).
In this paper we draw from two CPPs to illustrate relational and critical methods ‘at work’. In particular, we highlight the challenges of building the necessary ‘sanction and sanctuary’ (Dickens & Watkins 1999) to provide ‘spaces’ for critical re-framing and consideration of alternatives (Argyris, 2003). In so doing, we make visible: the need for collaborative action research to involve both collaborative, group-based inquiries and wider partnership and stakeholder capacity-building; and the tensions for action researchers of working with existing institutional policy objectives whilst holding onto aspirations for more critical investigations.
