Participatory futures research. Research or practice consulting?

This article combines futures research with participatory practice research, whose methodical approaches such as "community participation", "community-based participatory research" and "participatory action research" not only proved to be significant in the prime age of action research in the 1970s, but these topics are growing research domains even today. Based on the current status of discussion about action research, this article presents the methodological principles andmethodical specifics of a scientifically substantiated participatory futures research. Its most important principles are a) a clear role distribution between the actors of futures research on the one hand and practitioners in the respective action field of futures shaping on the other, b) visible orientation to quality factors of scientific study (that are appropriate for the object of study), c) transparency in terms of concrete research processes and research products and, based on this data, for feedback to the scientific system, as well as d) the involvement of participation-oriented researchers in the critical discourse of the scientific community. The term "research" should not be used until at least these quality factors for good research are fulfilled.