Theory in the Context of Collaborative Inquiry

Collaborative practices that bring researchers and community participants together are favored by a social constructionist meta-theory. Specific features of research activity in the human sciences are discussed relevant to the contributions of theory to collaborative practice. It is argued that collaborative practice consists of alternating movements between two modes of action. In the first mode, the present, the past and the future of a local field are grasped and problem-solving is initiated. In this mode, action is largely based on tacit forms of understanding. In the second mode, the tacit assumptions are recognized in the past tense and thus become explicit. In the first mode, a theory helps facilitate the movement by deepening the understanding of a field and developing a policy or a plan. In the second mode, a theory can logically express the tacit assumptions, relocate recognition and practice in the previous or first mode, and reveal useful new directions for action in a newly emerging first mode. It is further argued that collaborative practice in a local field can be linked with action in other local fields, thus giving rise to inter-local practices. Theoretical abstractions can be used to translate concrete activities in such a way that activities in spatially and temporally removed situations are illuminated.