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This paper is concerned with developing a means of studying social action, rather than attending only to structure. A county self-survey of health conditions is used as a test case. Certain assumptions and questions are specified and the flow of action is abstracted. On this basis, a model is developed. Five analytical components are seen: (1) convergence of interest, (2) establishment of an initiating set, (3) legitimation and sponsorship, (4) establishment of an executing set and mobilization of community resources, (5) fulfillment of a "charter." Each component is presented and discussed in some detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the political incursions in the process of evaluation research. Researchers who undertake the evaluation of social action programs are engaged in enterprise fraught with hazards. They are beset by conceptual and methodological problems, problems of relationships, status and function, practical problems and problems of career and reward. There is also an increasing requirement to boost visibility and scope of evaluation research in recent years. The big change that is expected is that both programming and evaluation are now national in scope. Programs may actually become no more standardized in form, content and structure than they ever were, but they are funded from a common source and bear a common name, which is "community action program,".

The article presents comments of the author on a paper related to the applicability of the Guttman scale in rural sociological research merits the attention for two reasons. First it directs the attention of rural sociologists to a relatively little known research technique, which has proved to be of great value in other research areas. Secondly, it explores the possibilities of this technique for action research; in the words of their summary: how to apply research in the service of policy makers. However, it seems that the authors have stated their case a bit overoptimistically, where they describe the possibilities of the Guttman scale as an "instrument d'action et de pedagogie." The authors speak of elaborating standards for the measurement of attitudes, capable of showing the characteristic stages in the process of evolution of farmers, to indicate the exact place of each category in the process, to make possible comparisons--on the psychological level--between the different categories and to control the effectiveness of the actions undertaken.

Introduces several papers on the selected features and pertinent issues in the field of organization development (OD) in the U.S. Events, theories and circumstances that occurred prior to the emergence of OD; Description of action research and training, as well as examples of the flexibility and power of the approach to change; Argument for human resource development.

This article presents a description of action research and training as well as examples of the flexibility and power of the approach to change in organization development in the U.S. The approach used in this article by no means exhausts AT and R methods and strategies. The action research that emerges today is often melding of all the four methods of action research in 1984. The National Training and Development Service has been investing its resources heavily in AT and R as a change strategy.

The article looks at Group Feed-back Analysis (GFA) as it applies to field research. GFA claims to possess a number of advantages over other feed-back methods. The author notes that any method which helps to improve the quality or speed of learning is considered to be part of a change facilitating process. GFA has been applied in various non-training situations to produce action based on research findings. The article discusses the action research application of Group Feed-back Analysis and the theoretical model within which GFA appears to work as a change agent. The author focuses on a description of the method for use in training. The author makes mention of reports which suggest that the trend towards descriptive teaching is due in part to the low quality of the teaching staff utilized in the study.

The article focuses on the value of action research, which has been developed by the Tavistock institute of Human Relations in Great Britain. Action research, or the sociotherapeutic approach, is a collaboration between social scientists and managers who identify and try to resolve human problems in the work situation. A project conducted by the Research Department of Ashridge Management College focused on management at small firms. The development of management strategy is defined in three time periods and changes in organizational structure and communication patterns are evaluated. The risk in action research is sharing the decision-making process with outsiders whose expertise is not an exact science.

This article deals with experience gained in the course of an action-research project which has been under way in Austin, Minnesota since 1948, at George A. Hormel & Co. The workers are organized in Local 9 of the United Packinghouse Workers of America. The objective of the project is to understand the ways in which these workers are related to the industrial and social process and to explore ways and means of establishing the kind of inner and outer relatedness which will allow them to develop their individual potentialities to the greatest extent. The author of this article seeks to address two interrelated problems: (1) how can the social researcher, as an outsider, get valid data, and; (2) how can such data be obtained within a context of mutual understanding and willingness to collaborate in sharing information in a real social situation?

Professor George Geiger has provided a very thoughtful framework for describing and clarifying the role of the social scientist in action-research projects. With some minor variations in usage, the term action-reached has continued to denote the activity of applying research methodology to the diagnosis and solution of practical problems of taking action. The author of this article attempts to examine some of the problems of the social scientist who is faced with the decision of whether or not to participate, and how to participate, in action-research with some action group in the society. The invitation probably comes from some group that wants to become more scientific in evaluating its program and making better policy decisions.

The development of action research in community problems represents a significant change in the social participation of the social scientists. This article aims to suggest that those who are concerned with action research on community projects may with advantage consider the scope and limitations of other types of social research, and the difficulties and successes of established professional disciplines concerned in tackling human problems, particularly medical practice and social case work.

This article examines the relations between education and human relations. Attempts to undertake more fundamental work in connection with human relations in the schools and their effect on personality development meet with the resistance which is to be expected to any study which threatens the status quo. The study of these resistances and of their methods for their dissolution constitutes a major task for action research and reveals a new role for the psychologist in education. A sketch is given on the character of the school system and of the principles on which action research should rely in seeking to modify it in the direction of democracy.

This article is a revision of the article titled "Principia Sociologica," which appeared in the third volume of "The British Journal of Sociology," which discusses theories of sociologist Talcott Parsons. In the pre-Bales era we have the action systems and the pattern variables. There has been some modification of both these sets of concepts. An action is a constituent of three systems: as a physical act it is a constituent of the organic system, as a purposeful piece of behavior it is a constituent of a personality system and if it is directed towards another person or set of persons it is a constituent of a social system. The pattern variables, are concerned with the way we apprehend the objects towards which we act and the way we orient ourselves towards them. An object may be apprehended as a member of a class or in its own right as having something of particular significance to the actor. In addition an object may be appraised for what it is or for what it does.

The article provides information about the Dutch registration service for current social science research by the Social Science Council of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences and Letters, together with support of the public authorities in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Headed by H. P. Hoge-weg-de Haart, the registration service will undertake to register all social research in an early stage of progress. It will include research in the fields of sociology, cultural anthropology, social geography, demography, political science, and other research that has special social bearings.

The article offers information about the joint effort of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching with the Council for Elementary Science International in organizing a meeting to improve the instruction in elementary science in the U.S. The proposed meeting is expected to aid the prima-facie importance of research in the understandings of the council. Classroom teachers in the elementary are encouraged to participate in action research. The council took a direct effort to stimulate action research in elementary school science.