Action Research

Fri Dec 5 17:21:55 PST 2008

Hi everyone,

Jamie, I used os as the action research tool for my MALT thesis – Opening
Space for Community Conversations: Building for the Future. You can find it
online at the RRU library. I did one day, with no action day. The community
where I live is living with a difficult conflict situation and this research
was my attempt to give people a space to start talking. Curious thing is
that 3 years after I did the research, we may be actually able to start
doing circling again!

Nancy

  _____  

From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Chris
Corrigan
Sent: 05 December 2008 15:10
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: [OSLIST] Action Research

All you folks doing academic research on OS...we've been chasing this for a
few years now and trying to get bits and pieces of research organized and in
some cases even conducted on OST.  I know there is lots of it happening and
in my fantasy world it would be gathered and linked in one place.  

So we have that place, at openspaceworld.org:
http://openspaceworld.org/cgi/wiki.cgi?ResearchActivities  where some
research has alrady been collected.  A few years ago Larry Peterson, Peggy
Holman and I tried to do some research but it never really caught on.

Bottom line is that if you guys - Jamie, Sirin and others - start talking
and discovering other research that is done, or somehow you begin a series
of conversations about this topic, it would be great if you could share the
results and buttress the OST academic research component in the world.

Also Jamie, I'm in BC and most of my work is with Aboriginal communities in
Canada, and I'd be very interested to talk to you about a few initiatives
that I have going on that needs someone who can lend a research eye to using
Open Space for community governance.  We even have some SSHRC money
available for someone who would help us look at action based governance
models for urban Aboriginal communities, stemming out of work we did in
Prince George BC four years ago.  There is a post at my blog which is an
invitation to academic researchers:
http://chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot/?p=1796 

Let's talk!

Chris

On Fri, Dec 5, 2008 at 7:36 AM, Sirin Bernshausen <Sirin.Bernshausen at web.de>
wrote:

Hello Jamie,

I am sorry for the delayed reply, but I really wanted to add my perspective
to the discussion on Open Space and action research.

For my PhD I am using a systemic action research (SAR) approach which I am
particularly fond of because emergence and intuition are built into the
research process. Several strands of inquiry are pursued alongside.
Different kinds of knowledge   experiential, analytical, etc.   are
co-generated among researcher and research participants. Evidence can come
in various forms, including maps, stories, statistics, images, film or
questionnaires. It just makes so much sense to combine systemic thinking
with action research. Similarly, I am not interested in doing research just
for its own sake. I prefer to conduct a form of research that contributes to
increased knowledge and understanding of an issue while enhancing social
transformation and whole system change.

Since my research still is in its early stages and because of its emergent
nature I cannot say an awful lot about the details yet. However, in a
nutshell, I explore ways of enhancing attitude/behaviour change and
facilitating resilience management in the context of climate change/peak
oil. Initiatives like Transition Towns are use Open Space in order to engage
people and plan for local resilience and energy descent.  Danny Burns,
author of Systemic Action Research, explicitly mentions Open Space, World
Café and similar  large-scale events  for developing action inquiry strands
that may run alongside or even develop into major inquiry streams.
Large-scale events are particularly useful for opening up new inquiry
questions, testing resonance of issues (whether they are sufficiently
relevant to deserve further investigation), to generate a systemic (i.e.
diverse, multi-faceted) picture of views and opinions and to tap the
collective wisdom present within a system.
For my own research, I plan to use Open Space mainly for generating new
issues and for resonance testing. In addition to Open Space I carry out
semi-structured in-depth interviews with  change agents , explore public
perceptions of global uncertainties and experiment with different workshop
designs.

Besides my PhD research I am also involved in a cooperative inquiry process
a variant of action research   where we map and reflect on the scope, nature
and impact of conversations people have about  vulnerability  and
resilience . What I like about cooperative inquiry (and action research in
general) is that it is a participatory methodology which respects the agency
and intelligence of individuals as capable researchers rather than viewing
research as the preserve of trained professionals. In my opinion, this
corresponds very much with the basic premises underlying Open Space and
similar methods. This type of inquiry can at times be rather cumbersome and
it may not produce the type of  hard factual knowledge  that conventional
(positivist) researchers like to see. Yet this isn t necessarily a bad thing
- findings may be more ambiguous but they are very rich and (in my view)
much more in line with  reality  and how people make sense of the world.
Plus, doing an Open Spac!
 e on, say, energy descent may generate valuable insights into people s
thoughts and degree of awareness, while simultaneously changing people s
views and attitudes. I thus hope to both enhance and document positive
social change.

For my MA thesis I have explored Open Space as a form of conflict resolution
(i.e.  I just wrote about Open Space but I did not put it into practice -
something I'd certainly do differently today!).  Jamie - I'd be very
interested to learn more about your ideas and the evolution of your research
...

Cheers, Sirin

-------------------------

Betreff:  [OSLIST] Action Research  Von:  Jamie Snook <jamiesnook at YAHOO.COM>
An:  OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU  Datum:  28.11.08 14:27:28 Uhr

Hi Everyone,

I am new to this list. I am a MA candidate from Royal Roads University in
Conflict Analysis and Management. The ideas of systems thinking are less
that 6 months old to me and recently I took the step of hosting a staff
systems retreat for 25 staff members of the Labrador Metis Nation where I
am the General Manager.

We used Appreciative Inquiry, World Cafe and of course Open Space. The
results were great and outside the scope of this email. I am just curious
to see how well this Listserv works.

I'd be interested to hear views from people on the use of Open Space to
conduct thesis and or PHD research. I have ideas for my MA thesis and
thinking Open Space might be a fun way to do the research.

I am also wondering if anyone is conducting Open Space sessions or events
online using forums or other technology?

Thank you :-)

Jamie

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-- 
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Facilitation - Training - Process Design
Open Space Technology

Weblog: http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot
Site: http://www.chriscorrigan.com

Principal, Harvest Moon Consultants, Ltd.
http://www.harvestmoonconsultants.com
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