Researching resilience in action

Matters of action research as ‘matters of care’

Authors

  • Akina Mikami The University of Melbourne

Keywords:

Action Research, PhD, Matters of care, Care ethics

Abstract

This paper traces my Action Research (AR) journey and suggests a care perspective to AR. In my research that investigated the idea of resilience in disaster recovery, I engaged in a five-year collaborative inquiry of what it means to do resilience with a civil society group in Cairns, Australia, which acts alongside Fukushima children affected by the 2011 nuclear disaster. AR enabled a co-generative and democratizing ways of knowledge creation in which research can be simultaneously action-driven, theory-advancing and policy-informing. In my project, I addressed matters of action and inquiry as ‘matters of care’ – a generative engagement with neglected everyday needs and its wider entanglements that are tied to a multigenerational problem. Through this lens, I trace my journey of how I came to do AR, encountered a problem, found my co-researchers and engaged in collaborative inquiry. Finally, I reflect on who the audience is before concluding with ‘What’s next?’

Published

2022-11-30

How to Cite

Mikami, A. (2022). Researching resilience in action: Matters of action research as ‘matters of care’. Action Learning and Action Research Journal, 28(1), 126–152. Retrieved from https://alarj.alarassociation.org/index.php/alarj/article/view/353