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This version was published on July 1, 2008
Journal of Business and Technical Communication, Vol. 22, No. 3, 272-298 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1050651908315973

Action Research and Wicked Environmental Problems

Exploring Appropriate Roles for Researchers in Professional Communication

Stuart Blythe

Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, blythes{at}ipfw.edu

Jeffrey T. Grabill

Michigan State University

Kirk Riley

Michigan State University

The authors report on a 3-year action-research project designed to facilitate public involvement in the planned dredging of a canal and subsequent disposal of the dredged sediments. Their study reveals ways that community members struggle to define the problem and work together as they gather, share, and understand data relevant to that problem. The authors argue that the primary goal of action research related to environmental risk should be to identify and support the strategies used by community members rather than to educate the public. The authors maintain that this approach must be supported by a thorough investigation of basic rhetorical issues (audience, genre, stases, invention), and they illustrate how they used this approach in their study.

Key Words: action research • community-based research • environmental rhetoric • genre • invention • public • risk communication • stasis


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