Research Centre Centre for Action Research and Democratic Societal Change

The Centre for Action Research creates critical experience-based knowledge for democratic transformation. Located at Roskilde University, the centre brings together researchers, practitioners and students to strengthen democratic anchoring in the transformations society is facing, and the way the relationship between nature, humans and society is affected in various ways.

Action research is based on lived experience and visons among those affected by the problems, whether citizens' everyday lives or practical experience in organizations, institutions and workplaces.

The centre creates interaction between practice change and critical research in analyses of societal transformation, and the visions and conditions for democratic futures.

The centre has a particular focus on strengthening democratic transformation, methodological development, experience-based teaching and collaboration between research and practice.

Research fields

Democratic Societal Change

The centre seeks to enable transformations meeting the plural crises faced by nature, humans and society, strengthening democratic and societal discussion and cooperation with practice partners involved across subject areas, sectors and professional disciplines.

At the centre, we work across numerous issues: urban and local community planning, nature management, sustainable transformation, NGOs and voluntary organizations, working life and the labour market, professional organizations, the social and health sector, education and educational institutions.

Critical Utopian Action Research and Participative Methodologies.

The centre works across methodological practices within participatory action research, including pragmatic, participation- and change-oriented research and critical analyses of these.

The centre is particularly characterized by the development of critical utopian action research, as a methodology for creating interaction between experience-based critical analysis, envisioning utopian futures and enabling practical action. With inspiration from early critical theory and futures workshops, the centre has implemented numerous projects that seek to strengthen locally rooted transformation and democratic discussion of societal issues.

Education, Teaching and Problem-Based Learning

The centre works with a wide range of pedagogical and didactic approaches to experience-based, participatory, participation and change-oriented social learning.

The centre is located at Roskilde University with a unique tradition of working with problem-based learning in education and project supervision. The researchers offer supervision across the university's programmes at bachelor, master and PhD level and are involved in international educational collaborations. The centre collaborates action research in education, from student projects and coursework to educational development.

International Collaboration

The center works to strengthen and develop action research oriented towards democratic social change through active collaborations and networks in local, national, Nordic and international contexts. The center continuously initiates new projects in collaboration between research and practice. Often projects start with a request and idea from practice, other times new initiatives are research-initiated. We collaborate with a wide range of organizations, institutions and workplaces, and welcome new projects.

The center is organized across research areas at Roskilde University and led by Jonas Egmose, jem@ruc.dk in close collaboration with representatives from RUC's research environments involved in the center, See affiliated researchers here.
The centre is part of multiple international collaborations, and part of the Danish Action Research Network (DAN). The center facilitates collaborations, biannual research seminars, and is a co-organizer of the Danish Action Research Network Conference, which is held every other year.
See the latest publications and activities from the Center here.
The center has published a wide range of publications on methodological approaches to action research
Bladt, M, Nielsen K A (2013): Free space in the process of action research. Action Research 11(4) 369-385
Egmose, J, Hauggaard-Nielsen, H, Jacobsen, S (2022): Action Research in the Plural Crisis of the Living. Understanding, Envisioning, Practicing, Organising Eco-Social Transformation. Educational Action Research. https://doi-org.ep.fjernadgang.kb.dk/10.1080/09650792.2022.2084433
Egmose, J, Gleerup, J, Nielsen, B (2020): Critical Utopian Action Research. Methodological inspiration for democratization? International Review of Qualitative Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940844720933236
Egmose, J (2015): Action Research for Sustainability. Social Imagination between Citizens and Scientist. Routledge.
Gunnarson, E, Hansen, H, Nielsen, B (2016): Action Research for Democracy. New Ideas and Perspectives from Scandinavia. Routledge Advances in Research Methods. Routledge.
Hansen, H, Nielsen, B S, Nadarajah, S (2016): Commons, Sustainability, Democratization: Action Research and the Basic Renewal of Society. Routledge Advances in Research Methods. Routledge.
Nielsen, K A, Svensson L (eds.) (2006): Action Research and Interactive Research. Shaker Publishing
Nielsen, H, Lyhne , I (2016): Adding action to the interview: Conceptualizing an interview approach inspired by action research elements. I tidsskriftet 'Action Research', Sage Journals, UK, London.
Thingstrup, S, Unni, L 2026: Analysis in action research: Four analytical propositions for how to think with the ethos of action research. Qualitative Studies. Vol. 11, No. 1, 2026, pp. 13-38