Amphibious Research

Action research combines academic study, participation in public debate, public policy advocacy and institution building (such as think tanks and NGOs). This book, in both its English and Spanish versions, analyzes the advantages and difficulties of this type of work. Close interaction with diverse audiences tends to give action research greater empirical precision and relevance, and serve as a source of motivation for practitioners. However, it also creates constant risks of dispersion, lack of analytical distance and burnout. To take advantage of the advantages and face the difficulties, the book proposes an approach - 'amphibious research' - based on hybrid methodological approaches and writing styles, whose products gather contributions from different fields of knowledge and circulate in multimedia formats.