Industrial action research: the Norwegian way

Abstract

This article explores how to promote inter-professional collaboration between health professionals and welfare professionals in a project organisation (the Inter-professional collaboration project IPC-project) aimed at work life inclusion for people with reduced work ability. Through a participative research design centred on a series of three workshops during a 6-month period, the project members explored how they could improve their practice and better support the users of the services. We frame this participatory research project in the Norwegian tradition of industrial action research (Kemmis and McTaggart 2003), which focuses on broad participation and researcher supported organisational development including all members of the organisation in joint explorations of existing and desired practice, and where there is an intent of the organization to implement the new practice. The article is based on the empirical work in a Master thesis submitted at the University of South-Eastern Norway.