Action research can be understood as a complex interplay between local circumstances and local research traditions, embedded in their turn in local intellectual-philosophical traditions, national as well as international. Because of this interplay it is questionable whether it would be particularly fruitful to look for 'typical local forms of action research'. In this article we will reflect on this issue, and we base our reflections on the Nordic tradition of "bildung" ("bildning") and the continental European tradition of pedagogy as human science. As a departure for the reflections, illustrations will be used of what is actually happening with regard to action research in our own countries of the Netherlands and Sweden.