Action Research

Fri Dec 5 22:03:37 PST 2008

Nice to see all of my British Columbian friends coming out of the wood work!

Chris

On Fri, Dec 5, 2008 at 8:16 PM, Diamond Christie <diamondc17 at mac.com> wrote:

> 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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-- 
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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