Welcome

Pragmatic fieldwork is a method for community knowing and social change. It holds that the pursuit of knowledge and the pursuit of the good are deeply interrelated. Good social practice informs how we understand the world; good theory improves our ability to act.

Herein you will find various resources for performing pragmatic fieldwork.

• Practices: Outlines the eight practices used by the method.
• Action Pairs: Describes how the practices can be used to mutually improve each other.
• Qualitative Research: Discusses the qualitative foundation of pragmatic fieldwork.
• Participatory Action Research: Discusses how pragmatic fieldwork draws from other socially engaged methods.
• Pragmatism: Identifies the philosophical underpinnings of the method.
• Community Knowing: Reflects on the nature of community based knowing.

Much of the content on this site is drawn from a paper published in the Journal of Social Justice titled "Pragmatic Fieldwork: Qualitative Research for Creative Democracy and Social Action." Download the paper here.

You can also view a training based on this method here.