CAN SOCIAL CHANGE BE SUPPORTED BY INQUIRY? Available to Purchase

It is proposed to see society as epiphenomenal to a process, the political process. Various actors contribute, with different aims, resources, constraints—and usually without control over the overall effect of their contributions. Organized research is one of the actors. The question is what type of organizational or paradigmatic design will empower the research actor to direct social change in a direction with improvements for many or all other actors. The control paradigm turns out not to be helpful for research to become a strong actor in this respect. A paradigm able to become more supportive is described.