Research | Action

Research for economic and social justice

About

Research|Action offers state-of-the-art research for our clients in community and labor organizations.  We are a worker-owned firm of seasoned professionals who champion research and popular communication as vital and necessary to the project of social change.

We pride ourselves on helping turn research into effective communication tools and action no matter the scale — from a member survey, public information campaign or targeted policy push — to program evaluation that enlists members in a reflective process aimed at building the group’s power. Using surveys, government data, interviews, and strategic research sources, we highly value what both quantitative and qualitative research can teach us.  

Core to our mission is an awareness of the power relations in research across a range of social and economic inequalities.

Our Team

Kate Diedrick, MA

Kate Diedrick, MA

Member

    Kate Diedrick is a researcher, oral historian, and campaign strategist whose background as a labor organizer enhances her work with unions, housing, and other community organizations tackling social and economic challenges. Now in Atlanta, she has partnered with national and local racial and economic justice organizations in the Southeast, Boston, and Providence. An expert project manager, she draws on a wide-range of research techniques and communication strategies including video. She holds degrees from Grinnell College and Brown University.

    Eric Dirnbach, Ph.D

    Eric Dirnbach, Ph.D

    Member

    Eric has been a labor movement researcher, campaigner and policy analyst for over 20 years, dedicated to organizing and improving working conditions for workers nationally and globally. He got his start as an activist while in the leadership of the Graduate Employees Organization and anti-sweatshop movement at the University of Michigan in the 1990s. He has worked with many labor solidarity organizations, worker centers and cooperatives and is currently on the boards of the Labor Research & Action Network and Morningside Gardens, a housing coop. Based in New York City, he has extensive experience in corporate research and campaigning and in the policy areas of trade, procurement, labor standards, and green jobs. He has degrees from Cornell and Michigan.

    Abby Scher, Ph.D

    Abby Scher, Ph.D

    Member

      Abby is a New York-based sociologist and writer who specializes in creating immensely accessible research so that it will have the greatest impact. As a journalist, her coverage of Labor, economic justice, women’s and immigrant issues appears in national outlets. She is former editorial and interim research director of the progressive think tank Political Research Associates, and a former coeditor of the economic justice magazine Dollars and Sense. The Ford Foundation recognized her cross-community organizing work with its Leadership for a Changing World Award. As a longtime nonprofit professional, she is seasoned in crafting research and editorial tied to organizing campaigns and evaluation. She holds degrees from the University of Chicago and the New School for Social Research.

      Services

      At Research|Action we specialize in

      Strategic Campaign and Policy Research

      Participatory Research and Popular Education

      Organizational Learning and Evaluation

      Products

      Research|Action’s members have years of organizing, research, policy analysis and communications experience all aimed at helping labor and justice organizations achieve their goals. We pride ourselves on our ability to bridge research and action by presenting our findings in clear, everyday language that is easily understood. We can provide the following services for your organization:

      Research & Reports

      • Strategic, multi-method research on an employer, industry or issue
      • Presentation and training on this research for your staff
      • Report for internal use or public release

      Membership Surveys

      • Survey design for collection of data from membership
      • Strategy for achieving high response rates
      • Analysis of the membership data
      • Presentation for staff and report for internal use or public release

      Evaluation

      • Site visit observations
      • Focus groups
      • Interviews with staff, members, clients
      • Participatory evaluation
      • Case studies
      • Creation of metrics and benchmarks for judgment
      • Recommendations

      Training & Popular Education

      • Planning for an organizing, bargaining or policy campaign
      • Trainings on specific research or campaign topics
      • Individual mentoring for research and campaign staff
      • Seminars on the labor movement and strategic research

      Communication Tools

      • Op Eds
      • Features
      • PowerPoints/Slides to Educate
      • Briefs/Memos
      • Reports
      • Video and Audio Podcasts

      Projects

      Central Brooklyn Food Democracy Project

      Central Brooklyn Food Democracy Project

      This project seeks to create good jobs and access to healthy food through a consumer owned, black-led grocery store and worker owned food enterprises. Research|Action is serving as project evaluators and contributing collaboratively developed research that creates opportunities for organizational learning.

      Cooperative Education

      Cooperative Education

      We support the Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative’s Economic Democracy Learning Center’s planning of a network of youth, educators, schools and school leaders who will co-create a curriculum and approach to nurturing cooperative values in schools and youth groups.

      Organization Project Evaluation

      Organization Project Evaluation

      We are working on a three year project with a cooperative legal group to evaluate a number of their key programs.

      Food Justice Research

      Food Justice Research

      We conducted research to help a food justice organization develop new strategies to grow in the future as they reassess their mission. This involved interviews with stakeholders, outreach to community capital groups, and food justice sector research.

      Research on The Atlanta City Detention Center

      Research on The Atlanta City Detention Center

      Working with community groups, we provided background research on the history and budget of the Atlanta jail to inform a campaign arguing for alternatives uses for the facility.

      Prisoner Food and Health Care Survey

      Prisoner Food and Health Care Survey

      We worked with the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee to survey over 100 prisoners about serious food and health care problems in prisons.

      New York State Cooperatives

      New York State Cooperatives

      We worked with the Cooperative Development Institute, the Data Commons Cooperative and the Cooperative Economics Alliance of New York City to create a directory of cooperatives and other solidarity economy entities throughout the state.

      Housing Justice League, Atlanta

      Housing Justice League, Atlanta

      We worked with the Housing Justice League of Atlanta, Showing up for Racial Justice Atlanta, and other partners on a large-scale participatory action research project on the effects of the Atlanta Beltline development on housing affordability and neighborhood cultural and social identity.

      Union Cooperatives

      Union Cooperatives

      We worked with the New York City Network of Worker Cooperatives, CUNY's Murphy Institute and other coalition members to promote alliances between labor unions and worker-owned coops.

      No Piece of the Pie

      No Piece of the Pie

      We worked on a report in collaboration with the Food Chain Workers Alliance on wages and working conditions for 22 million workers in the low-wage food industry, using government data and worker interviews.

      Union Membership Survey

      Union Membership Survey

      We worked with a professors' union on a survey of their adjunct members to learn about their health care needs in preparation for upcoming collective bargaining.

      SUNY and Sweatshops: How is SUNY Enforcing its Apparel Anti-Sweatshop Policy?

      SUNY and Sweatshops: How is SUNY Enforcing its Apparel Anti-Sweatshop Policy?

      This report describes an investigation into how well the State University of New York (SUNY) is enforcing its five year old anti-sweatshop policy.

      The Crisis in Our Schools: A Report on Working and Learning Conditions in New York City’s Public Schools

      The Crisis in Our Schools: A Report on Working and Learning Conditions in New York City’s Public Schools

      This report discusses a survey done by the Movement of Rank & File Educators caucus of United Federation of Teachers members to find out more about their working conditions and students’ learning conditions.

      From Herndon Homes to Two Georgia Domes

      From Herndon Homes to Two Georgia Domes

      The online exhibit focuses on two of Atlanta’s Westside neighborhoods, English Avenue and Vine City, over a hundred year period, with special attention paid to the last twenty-five years, and includes oral history interviews, recent and historical media, and other archival items.

      News & Blog

      Research|Action Year in Review

      • December 31st, 2020

      R|A just had its fourth full year of operation and overall we feel it was successful. Of course 2020 was…

      Black Lives Matter!

      • June 28th, 2020

      The Black Lives Matter movement is forcing the country to face how government policy, the economy, the police and other…

      Read the blog →

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      • Contact

      Contact us if you want to learn more about us or discuss a possible project!

      Contact Info

      770-376-7302‬
      info@researchaction.net

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