Feminist action research

Feminist action research in MOS puts feminist principles into practice by intrinsically connecting scholarly knowledge production and social change. Feminist action research can be applied within different research epistemologies, but is particularly suitable for critical research agendas. It emphasizes working with local women and through their involvement understanding local knowledge systems. Indeed, feminist action researchers in MOS involved indigenous women, poor women and women at the shop-floor in understanding and improving their situation. Moreover, they revealed local knowledge systems in higher education institutions to support transformational change from inside out. Feminist action research calls for epistemic reflexivity on the power relations of research interactions and develops novel ways of data collection to facilitate data collection and interpretation with participants. To illustrate, feminist action researchers introduced visualization techniques such as Photovoice and participatory modeling to enable the discussion of sensitive issues and support a systemic understanding of inequality processes.