ABSTRACT
The interventionist researcher is interested in helping to make the change—improvement to the state-of-the-art—to happen together with real-life organizations and other social actors. It considers as an approach with dual aims: one is to improve the validity and relevance of empirical research—and related scientific outputs such as publications—by introducing better connections between science and practice. Another is related to direct and powerful facilitation of change. Particularly in situations where a complex network of actors calls for systematic information production, coordinated and neutral external facilitation, critical analysis, fresh innovation power, or multidisciplinary expertise, interventionist research (IVR) can be a powerful vehicle of advancing practice and society. The development of society is clearly not a mere fact-based linear process, but it is a value-based one. Impactful interventionist research does not end in a publication but in a resolution of both theoretically and societally intriguing dilemma.
