Organisations touristiques et méthodologies de recherche participative : un regard historique sur la recherche-action

The dominant approach to much of the research in the field of tourist hospitality appears, like much of the current research, to adopt a positivist perspective, with a clear emphasis on data collection and processing, as well as data analysis. The existence of qualitative research methods in the field of management allows the researcher to approach and interpret in a different way the latent meaning of organisational action, otherwise a little or not at all comprehensible. In this context, "action research" occupies a privileged place. The concept of "action research" refers to multiple research systems and methodological proposals, which oppose the traditional separation between research (with its specific methods), theory and possible results or applications to a specific object. Its history and its various evolutions may represent a privileged perspective for questioning the multiple evolutions of applied and public sociology, and more specifically of the methodology of social research. And therefore, also to look at the national specificities, dialogues and forms of disciplinary hybridizations that have accompanied the course of social sciences. This article illustrates the evolution of action research and its variants, focusing mainly on the Anglo-Saxon tradition, considered the most suitable for a reading of the epistemological evolution of this methodology, keeping an eye on the Italian and French perspectives. This perspective will also allow us to observe the recent development of certain sociological trends characterised by a more "committed" or "professional" application, applicable to the field of tourist hospitality.