Action Research

Fri Dec 5 20:16:15 PST 2008

Hi,
Just checking in on this topic.  Sirin mentioned Cooperative Inquiry  
(CI), and I had the opportunity to participate in a "bootstrap" CI (no  
one in the group had any previous experience with CI) during my  
masters process, and I would agree with Sirin's comments: there is no  
distinction necessary between researchers and participants, and  
because it has action and reflection stages as part of the process, it  
allows the inquiry to be fluid throughout the research phase. (We met  
in person to begin with, but because our 'action sites' spanned 2  
countries & 4 time zones, we then used a combination of conference  
calls, Skype, & on-line journalling to connect with each other during  
the reflection phases.)  Also, because there is space for the findings  
to include both informative and transformative aspects, it suits  
different peoples' preferences for reporting on the experience.  In  
our group, we were able to combine art, photography, and poetry with  
more analytical writing.  In the end, we realized that the informative  
summary lead to transformation, and the transformative summary lead to  
new information (go figure!).  Four CI's were presented collectively  
at the Fourth International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry: (theme -  
Ethics, Evidence & Social Justice) http://www.icqi.org/qi2008/  .   
Many of the students did choose CI for the masters or doctoral work.   
Although I did not use Open Space for my masters, I did use World  
Cafe, Appreciative Inquiry & Circle in an organization to explore  
leadership through hosting meaningful conversations (thanks to  
discovering the Art of Hosting), and was pleased with how the process  
worked - for the organization, me personally, and for meeting my  
learning goals.

Jamie, I think there are fantastic options for your learning,  
community, and projects - keep us posted on your progress!

Christie
PS - I found both The Change Handbook & the Handbook of Action  
Research to be significantly helpful resources!

On 5-Dec-08, at 5:21 PM, Nancy McPhee wrote:

> 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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