In between Participatory Practice Research and Practitioner Research—Concepts in Transition

Abstract

The article focuses on the possibilities and challenges when using two defined types in practice research: Practitioner Research and Participatory Practice Research and how positions in between defined approaches can be helpful for both researchers and practitioners in social work. As a part of the analyses, the article discusses central concepts and methodological questions in practice research. The aim is to illustrate the needed and challenging practice research ‘shuttle’ between academic traditions/demands, practice needs and learning processes and, in this way, contribute to a methodological innovation that enables genuine co-production among social work practitioners, service users and researchers. The exemplified research design has deliberately been developed to push the boundaries of integrating research and practice in professional settings, to address questions of access to participation for practitioners and service users in research and subsequently to reflect different perceptions and genres of knowledge outputs. The approach shown in this article is based on theoretical, methodological elements and on a specific research project where the researchers worked together with a department of social services and where both researchers and practitioners turn out to be positioned ‘in between’ the types.