Untaming Aid through Action Research

Planned international development—Official Development Assistance (ODA) —pretends to address complex, intergenerational problems. The pretense is endemic to, and necessary for, the continuation of the development enterprise, leading to docile projects. ODA's methodologies and methods are ill-matched for confronting such problems, while those of action research are well-suited to the task. Yet ODA and action research are only infrequent and ephemeral bedmates. Research from five sites on three continents reveals five lessons for untaming aid through action research:

1. Plan and develop programming iteratively and over long time frames to offer meaningful support to people's lives,
2. Develop new connective tissue and relational capital,
3. Commit to inquiry and learning in specific contexts,
4. Incrementally confront culturally embedded practice in a safe and feasible manner, and
5. Use methodology to develop safe and participatory spaces that engage tacit and explicit perspectives and ways of knowing.

This article, the introductory essay to the Action Research Journal's special issue, "Aid, Development, Social Transformation," argues that adoption of these five practices could untame ODA and make it more powerful, ethical, and transformative. (Abstract)