Over the last few years, distinctive new approaches to research into human affairs have been developed and applied throughout the world. These initiatives - variously called cooperative, collaborative, participatory and experiential research - share certain features in common. They see research as a collaborative process, research with and for people rather than on people. Research is not treated as a neutral, value-free process, but as always supporting and questioning something; not just as a systematic quest for understanding, but as an action science which involves learning though risk-taking.

An important practical sourcebook for new ways of undertaking research, Human Inquiry in Action both presents an up-to-date assessment of the state of theoretical and methodological debates in collaborative human research and provides a summary of projects undertaken using collaborative methodologies.

The book addresses some of the difficulties involved with the collaborative approach. When the researcher is no longer separated from the researched, questions about how to collaborate and how to manage power relations become important. When people are inquiring into their personal experience, questions of subjectivity and validity are raised. These methodological problems are addressed in the first half of the book, while the remainder of Human Inquiry in Action resolves them in research contexts.

Human Inquiry in Action is essential reading for researchers in all social science disciplines interested in humanistic methods.