The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Constructing interorganizational collaboration The action researcher as boundary subject

På svenska

Author

Summary, in English

This article aims to explore critically the role of an action research team in the social construction of interorganizational collaboration aimed at transgressing organizational and professional boundaries. We argue that the new relationships, actor conceptions and in some cases forms of work organization arising from the change process have been socially constructed through the discursive interventions of the researchers. This has largely occurred through informal interaction with and between the actors engaged in the development process. The action researcher, rather than being a neutral discursive gatekeeper in collaborative development projects, is an active constructor of the discourse shaping the collaboration. A case is presented showing how the researcher role is thus better seen as being an active boundary subject mediating across various professional and organizational perspectives rather than a passive boundary object. Accordingly, by focusing on the discursive role of active researchers as boundary subjects, we can reflect more critically on the roles we adopt in our intervention endeavours and their inevitably political nature.

Publishing year

2010

Language

English

Pages

293-314

Publication/Series

Action Research

Volume

8

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Topic

  • Business Administration

Keywords

  • Interorganizational development
  • Health care
  • Discourse
  • Action research
  • Boundaries

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1476-7503