Miren Larrea

Senior researcher

Miren is a Senior Researcher at Orkestra and a lecturer at the Deusto International Research School (DIRS).

She is one of the proponents of Action Research for Territorial Development, an approach that emphasizes the co-generation of knowledge with territorial actors through participatory processes aimed at addressing specific development challenges. She has contributed to the advancement of this methodology through collaborations with public institutions at different levels of government, working on initiatives related to business competitiveness, workplace well-being, and political culture transformation. Her work has also supported the development of a new collaborative governance for territorial development in Gipuzkoa.

Miren has published extensively on these topics and has served on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Action Research and the Action Research Journal. She has also contributed to the development of the Territorial Development Series, an open-access book collection. Through doctoral supervision and capacity-building initiatives, she has supported the training and development of an emerging generation of action researchers.

International collaboration has been a significant component of her academic trajectory. Notable partnerships include collaborations with the Praxis Institute in Rafaela in Santa Fe, Argentina and the University of Agder in Norway.

Career

She began her academic career as a lecturer at the University of Deusto, where she had a degree in Economics and Business Administration.
Later, she completed her PhD with a dissertation on local development. Reflecting on the limited practical impact of her doctoral research on the territory it addressed, she spent five years working at a county development agency. This experience provided the foundation for what would later become Action Research for Territorial Development.
Following this period, she joined Orkestra, where she has developed the remainder of her research career.