Research as change agent

I recently had a discussion with someone in health area about the number of people who want to change that way something works (especially in health and education), so they undertake a research project to 'prove' that the change needs to happen. "Research has shown us that...". I've noticed this myself in the EDSW faculty.

But just doing research can, in itself and regardless of its outcomes, change systems and make them better for people. A few times in my interviews the interviewee has learned, from something I've said, how things are done in another faculty, and that has given them an idea about how they could do things in their faculty. Near the ends of interviews these kinds of things happen quite often. So although I'm doing the research primarily to find something out, to build a picture, to tell a story, I do hope that my work will result in change, or at least in more understanding of a common process. It might give administrators, students and supervisors a reason to look again at their preconceptions around PhD. But it might not, and that's not primarily why I'm doing it. But I want it to.