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The Action Research Podcast

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by Adam Stieglitz & Joe Levitan

5.0(11 reviews)

58 episodes

Updated Weekly

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Podcast Overview

In the first podcast dedicated solely to Action Research, Adam and Joe do a deep dive into the lives, experiences, philosophies, and - of course - investigations of the most well respected action researchers in the field. Throughout our four seasons, come hear about successes and challenges, and learn about what makes Action Research unique. If you are passionate about social change, engage in research, or are a budding scholar, then this is the perfect podcast for you. The Action Research Podcast aims to offer unique and valuable insights for the field through accessible and engaging conversations about the “what” “why” and “how” of Action Research. The Action Research Team: Adam Stieglitz, Co-host Joe Levitan, Co-host Shikha Diwakar, Production manager/Co-host Cory Legassic, Co-producer/Co-host Vanessa Gold, Sound technician and voice-over specialist

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9/1/2020

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Recent Episodes

August 1, 2026

Collective and Critical Territory Mapping in Action

Be sure to check out the grand finale of our Eco-Justice and Climate Action Mini Series! Throughout the last few months, we’ve explored everything from outdoor education in Canada, to a global storytelling initiative, to resilience building in coastal island communities, and more. Today, Joe and Blane explore the story behind “<a href="https://journals.nipissingu.ca/index.php/cjar/article/view/755" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Crystallizing Territorial Visions and Claims: Critical Mapping with Amazonian Kichwa Communities in Climate Change</a>. We are joined by authors Anke and Maritza, and co-investigator, Bequer Tuanama, from San Martin, Peru. The interview is bilingual, Spanish and English, with translations. The episode is full of meaningful reflections, candid anecdotes about the process, and a deeper look at their research project. Enjoy!The team begins by tracing how the partnership with Kichwa communities in San Martin, Peru came into being, and was built from existing relationships [3:13]. This leads into a discussion of critical mapping itself, and how a participatory research tool gradually became something more [5:57], providing a space for collective reflection, negotiation, and the reimagining of territorial claims in the face of state-led conservation efforts. The power dynamics involved and their negotiations are very insightful [10:32]. Afterwards, the team walks us through what the mapping process actually looked like, and the connection between mapping territory and climate action, using stories, timelines, and imagery of non-human beings which were included, beyond geographic boundaries [14:00]. The team then shares some of emergent practises from collaborating with a diverse group of collaborators on the project, including different layers of knowledge on map, as well as a vision for the territory in the future, along with practical challenges of the logistics of budgeting, transportation, bringing in elders and women, and providing an intercultural approach to the work [22:56]. The episode closes with learning and outcomes from the project, from the universities changing their approach to action research and impact, how mapping is an important tool of dialogue and collaboration across different sectors, bringing women’s voice to the forefront, and engaging different levels, particularly for communicating with the state [35:04].Thank you Anke, Maritza, and Bequer for sharing your work with us in this episode.Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to this episode of the Action Research Podcast, created by Joe Levitan, Adam Stieglitz, Shikha Diwakar, Cory Legassic, and Vanessa Gold.Produced by Shikha Diwakar and Vanja Lugonjic.Subscribe to our podcast on most major podcast distribution platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.How have you found yourself in the world of action research? Want to be interviewed or share one of your projects? Get in touch with us.Photo Credit: <a href="https://www.machu-picchu.org/location/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.machu-picchu.org/location/</a>Resources: <a href="https://justiciaclima-ppii.pucp.edu.pe/en/encuentra-nuestra-exhibicion-caminar-el-territorio-mapas-que-se-habitan-territorios-que-se-narran-ahora-en-digital/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Exhibition Blog Post</a><a href="https://justiciaclima-ppii.pucp.edu.pe/en/multimedia/mapas/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Maps</a> <a href="https://desmensuras.com/atlas/?query-72-page=2" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Atlas of Critical Mapping in Latin America </a>Biographies: Anke Kaulard holds a PhD in sociology and teaches in the Department of Social Sciences at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP) and currently at the University of Cologne. She is a former fellow of the trAndeS program (PUCP/FU Berlin) with a focus on inequalities and sustainable development in the Andean region, interested in political economy and ecology. She is a researcher in the action-research project: “Indigenous Visions for Climate Justice” (PUCP/University Diego Portales/TNC, funded by IDRC) and in the project: “Beyond Certification. From voluntary sustainability standards to sector transformation” (PUCP/University of Melbourne). Since 2003 she has been working in action-research, previously in development cooperation projects in the Andean region, Mozambique and Jordan. She works with producer associations and Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon to make visible their demands for climate, economic and social justice.Maritza Paredes is a Full Professor, and Researcher in the Department of Social Sciences, Sociology Section, at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. Her expertise lies in political sociology and environmental sociology. Paredes has extensively studied the impacts of extractive industries on the institutions and environmental justice of local communities and indigenous peoples, as well as the effects of climate policies at the local level, particularly among indigenous communities in the Amazon. She obtained her PhD in International Development from the University of Oxford in the UK and a Master's Degree from Columbia University in the USA.Bequer Tuanama Lumba is a Kichwa leader from the community of Kawana Sisa in San Martin, Peru. He served as apu of his community in 2008 and later contributed to the creation of the Kichwa Huallaga Dorado Federation (FEKIHD), which he chaired from two terms starting in 2016. Certified as a professional technician in 2023, he worked as a territorial researcher in the project: "Indigenous Visions for Climate Justice" and made significant contributions to the co-creation of the "Buen Mapeo" process in San Martin.-- This episode is part of our Eco-justice and Climate Action Series. Authors from journal articles in a Special Issue of the Canadian Journal for Action Research hop behind the mic and share the inspirations, process, and findings from their projects. Join Joe Levitan, Shikha Diwakar and special guest host Blane Harvey, as they interview an inspiring group of researchers, educators, organizers, and more, navigating the process of action research.

July 13, 2026

Fostering Solidarity Through Storytelling

Buckle up for a podcast episode—about podcasting. This time, co-host Blane Harvey switches roles, and is the interviewee alongside Jon Langdon and Sheena Cameron, authors of the <a href="https://journals.nipissingu.ca/index.php/cjar/article/view/784" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Storytelling Initiative: Community Podcasting at the Frontlines of Climate and Environmental Crises</a>. Joe and Shikha take on co-hosting to unpack storytelling, community podcasting, and the wonderful connections to action research.The episode begins with the team tracing how the project grew out of a research grant to collaborate with Community Radio in Ghana and Student Social Justice Radio in St. Francis Xavier University. The team starts by explaining the deep emphasis on relationship building, then moves onto the what and how of community radio, storytelling, and action research. Joe asks how, in their view, stories are a form of action [15:04], opening into describing the framework for <a href="https://ssir.org/articles/entry/using_story_to_change_systems" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Stories to Change Systems</a>. During the discussion, Jon calls for a broader view of how we view action [25:20]. We explore together how in their research, storytelling was action research, beyond knowledge mobilization, as the scaffolded design for initiatives involved for podcast episodes created meaningful action and learning opportunities. Departing from sanitised and linear conventions of academic work, Shikha asks the team about behind-the-scenes of the Storytelling Initiative. Sheena, Blane, and Jon share the messiness behind the process, from language and time zone barriers, to inequitable funding mechanisms, to the technical difficulties, and the vulnerability of asking people to share their stories [29:09]. Shikha prompts the group to reflect on how the teams were able to connect seven community groups across vastly different contexts, and the team describes a recurring David versus Goliath dynamic, and moments of trans-local solidarity that emerged when people saw their own struggle reflected in someone else's story [41:29]. Lastly, as a continuation of this work, Blane shares the importance of investigating Canadian universities’ approaches to ethics and funding to better support grassroot initiatives across the world, and Jon and Sheena reflect on their work in bringing podcasting into classrooms and research methodologies [48:26].Thank you Sheena, Jon, and Blane for sharing your work with us in this episode.Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to this episode of the Action Research Podcast, created by Joe Levitan, Adam Stieglitz, Shikha Diwakar, Cory Legassic, and Vanessa Gold.Produced by Shikha Diwakar and Vanja Lugonjic.Subscribe to our podcast on most major podcast distribution platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.How have you found yourself in the world of action research? Want to be interviewed or share one of your projects? Get in touch with us.Resources:Listen to the available episodes of The Storytelling Initiative <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-229053016/sets/transformations-2023-podcasts" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a>!<a href="https://journals.nipissingu.ca/index.php/cjar/article/view/784" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Storytelling Initiative: Community Podcasting at the Frontlines of Climate and Environmental Crises</a><a href="https://ssir.org/articles/entry/using_story_to_change_systems" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Stories to Change Systems</a>Biographies: Jonathan Langdon is a Professor and the Canada Research Chair for Sustainability and Social Change Leadership at St Francis Xavier University, in Mi’kma’ki or Nova Scotia, Canada. For the past 20 years, he has been working with social movements in Ghana to document and deepen their learning in, through and to struggle. More recently, this work sparked a partnership network amongst social movements in Ghana, South Africa, Guatemala and Canada that focuses on how movements can learn from each other from one locale to another, or translocally. Langdon’s writing has been published in leading international and Canadian development, participatory action research and adult education journals. He is also the author of African Social Movement Learning (Brill, 2020), and editor of Indigenous Knowledges, Development and Education (Sense, 2009).Blane Harvey is an Associate Professor and William Dawson Scholar in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University (Canada), where he leads the Leadership and Learning for Sustainability Lab. He is an interdisciplinary scholar whose work spans across the social and natural sciences on the themes of learning, collaboration, environmental change and education for sustainable development. Dr. Harvey’s research investigates how climate change knowledge is produced, validated and communicated, and how facilitated learning and knowledge sharing can support action on climate change, especially within communities most vulnerable to its impacts. He serves as an Associate Editor for the journal Climate and Development.Sheena Cameron is a PhD Candidate (ABD) in the Social Justice Education program at OISE, University of Toronto and teaches part-time with the Development Studies Program at St. Francis Xavier University. She holds a Master's in Communication and Social Justice from the University of Windsor ('13) and has 20 years of experience in community development and experiential learning. Areas of current research include transformative adult learning in the climate/environmental justice movement, Indigenous/settler relations, and podcasting for social change.-- This episode is part of our Eco-justice and Climate Action Series. Authors from journal articles in a Special Issue of the Canadian Journal for Action Research hop behind the mic and share the inspirations, process, and findings from their projects. Join Joe Levitan, Shikha Diwakar and special guest host Blane Harvey, as they interview an inspiring group of researchers, educators, organizers, and more, navigating the process of action research.

July 1, 2026

Critical Hope is an Action

In this episode we explore the inspiring concept of Critical Hope with Tara Mahoney. Co-authored with Kari Grain, their article <a href="https://journals.nipissingu.ca/index.php/cjar/article/view/770" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">“Not All Hope is Created Equal: Climate Action Research as a Source of Critical Hope”</a> is a rich resource for how to find your way when dealing with complexity in climate work and action research. Joe and Blane first introduce Tara and begin by asking her to define critical hope, and how it departs from optimism, including a walkthrough of the<a href="https://www.sfu.ca/ceri/blog/2022/Critical-Hope-By-Kari-Grain.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> seven principles Kari Grain developed in her previous work</a> [2:26]. The conversation then turns to the role of emotion in climate action research, and specifically the role of community in processing anger and grief [08:12]. How does critical hope then translate when working in a research context, which typically asks researchers to be emotionally removed? Tara shares how the Community Engaged Research Initiative grapples with balancing emotional and logical lenses within a research project [12:52]. These kinds of collaborations take time, and Tara reflects on the importance of trust and true relationship building [20:22]. Joe then probes how different research paradigms, like Two-Eyed Seeing, can be used in these more critical and participatory engaged research processes, especially in contexts collaborators may hold completely opposite worldviews [21:55]. Tara then describes the case of the Climate Disaster Project, which illustrates how media can be a powerful tool for bridging some of these worldviews and opening up dialogue. Running through the conversation is the positioning of researchers as community organizers. To conclude, Tara reflects on the example of co-creating the Climate Resilience Roadmap in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside [32:27] and wonderful outcomes of leading with practical community needs, instead of theory [37:06]. Closing off the episode, critical hope is shared as an undercurrent and practice for individuals and communities facing some of our most complex societal ailments. Resources <a href="https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfu.ca%2Fceri.html&data=05%7C02%7Cvanja.lugonjic%40mail.mcgill.ca%7C513a4da3d8c74e4ce13e08decbfa87d2%7Ccd31967152e74a68afa9fcf8f89f09ea%7C0%7C0%7C639172474077324254%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=%2B9K4JJcxab048j%2FBA6C72St%2BETNH%2FnpFGJmWWwYjvyM%3D&reserved=0" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Community Engaged Research In</a>itiative <a href="https://www.sfu.ca/ceri/Reimagining.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Reimagining the Public University in the Poly Crisis:</a> <a href="https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfu.ca%2Fceri%2Fblog%2F2022%2FCritical-Hope-By-Kari-Grain.html&data=05%7C02%7Cvanja.lugonjic%40mail.mcgill.ca%7C513a4da3d8c74e4ce13e08decbfa87d2%7Ccd31967152e74a68afa9fcf8f89f09ea%7C0%7C0%7C639172474077357739%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=CuLJaRng0egCV%2B9ORePRlEjtb1PN6%2Fmf4NReZ2hmXJc%3D&reserved=0" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Critical Hope by Kari Grain</a><a href="https://www.sfu.ca/ceri/publications1/handbooks---toolkits/climate-resilience-roadmap/climate-resilience-roadmap.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Climate Resilience Roadmap for Non-Profits: From Crisis to Collective Power</a>Bibliographies Tara Mahoney has over 15 years of experience in community organizing and a PhD in Communication from Simon Fraser University. Tara has been at the forefront of innovative projects that bridge the gap between academic research and community-driven solutions. As Research and Engagement Manager at SFU’s Community-Engaged Research Initiative (SFU CERi), she oversees the creation and production of SFU CERi's publications and programs. Her research focuses on emerging forms of public engagement and has been published in Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies, the European Journal of Cultural Studies and she won the CRTC Prize for Excellence in Policy Research in 2019.Kari Grain is a practitioner-scholar at the intersection of higher education, social justice, and community engagement. She earned her PhD in Education at UBC as a Vanier scholar, where her research focused on local community impacts of international service-learning in Uganda. For the past five years, she has worked as an educational consultant, focusing on experiential education, community-engaged research, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. Her research has been published in the Journal of Experiential Education, the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, and the Canadian Journal of Studies in Adult Education.Thank you Tara for sharing your work with us. Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to this episode of the Action Research Podcast, created by Adam Stieglitz, Joe Levitan, Shikha Diwakar, Cory Legassic, and Vanessa Gold. Produced by Shikha Diwakar and Vanja Lugonjic. Subscribe to our podcast on most major podcast distribution platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.How have you found yourself in the world of action research? Want to be interviewed or share one of your projects? Get in touch with us. --This episode is part of our Eco-justice and Climate Action Series. Authors from journal articles in a Special Issue of the Canadian Journal for Action Research hop behind the mic and share the inspirations, process, and findings from their projects. Join Joe Levitan, Shikha Diwakar and special guest host Blane Harvey, as they interview an inspiring group of researchers, educators, organizers, and more, navigating the process of action research.

58 total episodes available

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What is The Action Research Podcast?: In the first podcast dedicated solely to Action Research, Adam and Joe do a deep dive into the lives, experiences, philosophies, and - of course - investigations of the most well respected action researchers in the field. Throughout our four seasons, come hear about successes and challenges, and learn about what makes Action Research unique. If you are passionate about social change, engage in research, or are a budding scholar, then this is the perfect podcast for you.

The Action Research Podcast aims to offer unique and valuable insights for the field through accessible and engaging conversations about the “what” “why” and “how” of Action Research.

The Action Research Team: Adam Stieglitz, Co-host Joe Levitan, Co-host Shikha Diwakar, Production manager/Co-host Cory Legassic, Co-producer/Co-host Vanessa Gold, Sound technician and voice-over specialist
How often does this podcast release new episodes?: This podcast updates weekly.
Where can I listen to this podcast?: This podcast is available on 10 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
Does this podcast accept guests?: Information about guest appearances is not available.

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