Collogue Webinars 2022


Action Research Transformations: Why Developmental Reflexivity Matters.

Since the founding of Action Research journal in 2003, we have had the immodest aim to help recover and transform social science.  Our intent has been to assist the Academy, as well as the public and private sector, in discovering additions and alternatives to heretofore "ivory tower," materialist-positivist research and practice. We continue to extend our conversation. in 2022 we focus on the importance of developmental reflexivity.

 Action-oriented Research for Transformations is successful when we're unapologetically values oriented, working to open windows into regenerative/sustainable social practice. In other words when we're developing ourselves and our stakeholders as part of the work of sustainable development. What's new in ART is a call to scholar-practitioners to turn the camera also on themselves to practice reflexivity as they bring a more life enhancing world into being.  For this we're integrating subjective and objective perspectives. But what does that really mean?!

Our three part interactive collogue on zoom included one in-person hybrid meeting.

Collogue #1. Spring session:  Our first 2022 participative collogue framed ART with an an adult development approach to action research. Our conversation starter, sharing from his latest book,  was Bill Torbert. Bill first offered a taste of how a developmental approach interweaves first-, second-, and third-person research and practice. We believe that this interweaving is especially relevant to the practice of developmental reflexivity, which is one of the seven quality choicepoints in ART. The emphasis on reflexivity is perhaps the least familiar in contemporary action research practice and social science more generally. Yet we believe it is crucial to understand at a time when we realize that true objectivity must grapple with the impact of inter-subjectivity too...

  1. At this blog about the collogue, alongside a couple of video snippets, you get a sense of the richness of the April 1 session with its emphasis on how to do developmental reflexivity.
  2. In this first AR+ Yes/And podcast you hear Jemma L. interview Bill Torbert and Hilary Bradbury

Collogue #2. Summer session saw Drs. Ken Gergen, Hilary Bradbury, Miren Larrea, Aftab Erfan as panelists at a symposium (live and on zoom) within the program of the Academy of Management.  Hilary starts by sharing key conceptual underpinnings of action research for transformations (ART) and explains how these animate a meta-model of three spaces and seven choicepoints. The three spaces combine attention to relational, conceptual and experimental work. ART is further guided and assessed by seven quality choicepoints, from intention, use of participative methods, to theory building and developmental reflexivity. Ken Gergen clarifies that at this time of significant eco-social crisis, ART is the better way of doing social science. (well yea!) ART's consequentialist constructivism is developmental of all involved.  ART comes alive best through the impactful cases the presenters offer.  These are from the worlds of i) policy makers in regional government in Los Angeles (Hilary Bradbury) and 2) the Basque Region of Spain (MIren Larrea) and 3) work of JEDI (justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion) with the ten thousand employees in Vancouver Canada (Aftab Erfan). 

  1. At this blog you'll get a play by play of the August collogue.
  2. In the second AR+ Yes/And podcast, you hear a  conversation between Jemma L. with Dr. Miren Larrea and Carey West about the use of the arts in ART. Their trio conversation illustrates how ARTists use the arts to transform societal power relations. There's Miren's micro experiments with elected politicians in Spain and in Carey's support of women testifying about intimate violence in Canadian court rooms.

Collogue #3. November 30th focused on the needs of upcoming ARTists, i.e., Next Gen action researchers for transformations. Our conversation attractors included faculty leaders in the global universities in which action research transformations is thriving. These included Profs. Bem Le Hunte from University Technology Sydney, Ben Teehankee of De La Salle University, Philippines and Julie Borup Jensen of Aalborg University. As ever, it was an interactive session with time in small and large breakouts.

The conversation started with the issue of purpose.  What’s the reason faculty are willing to take on the big work of supporting next generation ART inside universities designed for more conventional outcomes? 

Short answer: ART opens up creativity and innovation. At a time when our global and local experience of eco-social polycrisis is not getting any easier, action researchers are helping mobilize the resources of knowledge creation institutions, i.e., formal and informal education spaces.  

What seemed especially inspirational for those who participated is that the success with ART happened despite the stranglehold of conventional academic processes. This inspiration showed up for some participants as a sense of wistfulness (how education could be!) and despair at having to work within norms rapidly becoming unfit for purposes of supporting a next generation.  One participant, who leads a research think-tank in Germany, spoke of how overly narrow grant-givers define deliverables in the world of international development.

 Check out collogue #3 video snippets and podcast here: https://actionresearchplus.com/global-next-gen-art-faculty-help-it-happen-2022-collogue-3/




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