Action research: A Latin American perspective

This is a personal Latin American perspective on action research, as my contribution to the debate promoted by Werner Fricke on the subject. My discussion follows the main issues outlined by Davydd Greenwood in his article (CAT 7(2): 2002), which laid the ground for our exchanges. I argue that it is too early to dismiss all contributions from conventional research to the social sciences, and that action research’s main contribution is to really involve ordinary people in building knowledge, an endeavor that is not easy to achieve. In relation to unfulfilled promises and unmet challenges I discuss such issues by referring to my own practice.