Scholarship That Works

The article discusses the need for scholars to engage in more research that has practical application. Increasingly and for various reasons, research seems aimed at producing “knowledge for the sake of knowledge.” Topics of interest to researchers may have little appeal to practitioners in industry and government. In addition, the best colleges and universities in the U.S. have a notable bias toward hiring persons with pure research backgrounds rather than applied ones. The author makes a plea for more “action research,” whereby researchers collaborate with practitioners to address real-world concerns.