When Action Research Becomes a Crutch: Dependency, Shared Reflexivity and Scholar Activism in Community Supported Agricul-Ture

This article examines a participatory action research experience conducted between 2018 and 2021 within the development of a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) initiative in Trentino, northern Italy. Situated at the intersection of agroecology, action research and scholar activism, the study explores both the transformative potential and the unintended risks of combining research, facilitation and activism within a community-led food project. Drawing on participant observation, interviews, focus groups, meeting minutes and autoethnographic reflection, the article reconstructs the evolution of the initiative from its emergence to its eventual dissolution. The findings show that participatory action research supported collective learning, knowledge co-production and participants’ engagement with agroecological values and practices. At the same time, the study reveals an underexplored risk: the progressive concentration of expectations, responsibilities and symbolic authority around the researcher, generating forms of dependency that may undermine empowerment. The article argues that this tension can be addressed through shared reflexivity, understood as a collective practice through which participants and researchers critically examine roles, expectations, emotions and power relations. Rather than a simple crisis-management strategy, shared reflexivity emerges as a core epistemological contribution of scholar activism, enabling the co-production of knowledge, responsibility and transformative action.