As academic researchers we mostly worry about research ‘outcome’ as in ‘result’ — because that is what gets written about and published.1 However, it might take years sometimes to fully see the outcome of your research, especially when you are talking about impacts through Action Research, action that relates to changing institutions and social behaviours. I was involved in one such ‘Action Research’ while working in Sweden. Although we were only just beginning to see signs of impact of our research actions after more than two years of engagement, we decided to not just wait for it to manifest fully but to write about it, and try to get it published.
I was involved in Work Package 5 (Adaptive co-management and balancing of values in terrestrial habitats), where we used the case of Vilhelmina Upper Forest Common (VUFC) in northern Sweden to study participatory forest management/governance. In particular, I led the action-research component to analyse and encourage shareholders’ participation in the governance of VUFC. We studied shareholders’ engagement in the VUFC on one hand, while on the other, we analysed the board and forest manager’s planning and decision-making process.