The SAGE Handbook of Action Research: Participative Inquiry and Practice

′For anyone seeking to create meaning out of life, inspire others with publication of research discoveries and insights, and help the world become a better place within which to live and work, action research holds great promise as an approach. The challenge is to do it well and with rigor. The Handbook is a magnificent collection of articles that will help the reader do all of that′ - Richard E. Boyatzis, Case Western Reserve University and ESADE   ′This second volume will be a welcome extension of the landmark first volume of the SAGE Handbook of Action Research. It effectively secures the field′s ′second wave′ in a particularly powerful and creative articulation of well-theorised practice. It could not be more timely for a fast-growing field that has attracted recent appreciation from parties as disparate as Shell, 3M, Australian Aboriginal women in outback Australia working to prevent harm to children and the Secretary General of the UN′ - Yoland Wadsworth   ′For anyone thinking about or doing action research, this book is an obligatory point of reference. If any one text both maps the action research paradigm, and at the same time moves it on, this is it′ - Bill Cooke, Manchester Business School   Building on the strength of the seminal first edition, the The SAGE Handbook of Action Research has been completley updated to bring chapters in line with the latest qualitative and quantitative approaches in this field of social inquiry. Peter Reason and Hilary Bradbury have introduced new part commentaries that draw links between different contributions and show their interrelations.   Throughout, the contributing authors really engage with the pragmatics of doing action research and demonstrate how this can be a rich and rewarding reflective practice. They tackle questions of how to integrate knowledge with action, how to collaborate with co-researchers in the field, and how to present the necessarily ′messy′ components in a coherent fashion. The organization of the volume reflects the many different issues and levels of analysis represented.   This volume is an essential resource for scholars and professionals engaged in social and political inquiry, organizational research and education.

Table of Contents:
PART ONE: GROUNDINGS Introduction to Groundings - Peter Reason and Hilary Bradbury Living Inquiry - Patricia Gayá Wicks, Peter Reason and Hilary Bradbury Personal, Political and Philosophical Groundings of Action Research Practice Participatory Action Research as Practice - Marja Liisa Swantz Some Trends in the Praxis of Participatory Action Research - Md. Anisur Rahman Action Research and the Challenge of Scope - Bjørn Gustavsen, Agneta Hansson and Thoralf U Qvale Action Research at Work - Hilary Bradbury et al Creating the Future Following the Path from Lewin Continuing the Journey - Colleen Reid and Wendy Frisby Articulating the Dimensions of Feminist Participatory Research Towards Transformational Liberation - M Brinton Lykes and Amelia Mallona Participatory Action Research and Activist Praxis Critical Theory and Participatory Action Research - Stephen Kemmis Systems Thinking and Practice for Action Research - Ray Ison Social Construction and Research as Action - Kenneth J Gergen and Mary M Gergen Power and Knowledge - John Gaventa and Andrea Cornwall Appreciable Worlds and Inspired Inquiry - Danielle P Zandee and David L Cooperrider Ethics and Action Research - Mary Brydon Miller Deepening Our Commitment to Principles of Social Justice and Redefining Systems of Democratic Practice The Future of Universities - Morten Levin and Davydd Greenwood Action Research and the Transformation of Higher Education Action Research, Partnerships and Social Impacts - L David Brown and Rajesh Tandon The Institutional Collaboration of PRIA and IDR PART TWO: PRACTICES Introduction to Practices - Peter Reason and Hilary Bradbury Action Inquiry - William R Torbert and Steven S Taylor Interweaving Multiple Qualities of Attention for Timely Action Action Science - Victor J Friedman and Tim Rogers Linking Causal Theory and Meaning-Making in Action Research Clinical Inquiry/Research - Edgar H Schein The Practice of Appreciative Inquiry - James D Ludema and Ronald E Fry PRA, PLA and Pluralism - Robert Chambers Practice and Theory Action Learning - Mike Pedler and John Burgoyne The Jury Is Out - Tom Wakeford et al How Far Can Participatory Projects Go towards Reclaiming Democracy? Learning History - George Roth and Hilary Bradbury An Action Research Practice in Support of Actionable Learning Extending Epistemology within a Co-Operative Inquiry - John Heron and Peter Reason Action Research in Health Care - Ian Hughes Action Research on a Large Scale - Ann W Martin Issues and Practices Theorizing Audience, Products and Provocation - Michelle Fine and Maria Elena Torre Taking the Action Turn - Sonia Ospina et al Lessons from Bringing Participation to Qualitative Research PART THREE: EXEMPLARS Introduction to Exemplars - Hilary Bradbury and Peter Reason Varieties of Action Research Charismatic Inquiry in Concert - John Heron and Greg Lahood Action Research in the Realm of ′the between′ Presentational Knowing - Jennifer Mullett Bridging Experience and Expression with Art, Poetry and Song Working with ′Not Knowing′ amid Power Dynamics among Managers - Marianne Kristiansen and Jørgen Bloch-Poulsen From Fault-Finding and Exclusion towards Co-Learning and Inclusion Learning to Love Our Black Selves - Taj Johns Healing from Internalized Oppressions The Tapestry of Leadership - Lyle Yorks et al Lessons from Six Co-Operative Inquiry Groups of Social Justice Leaders The Workplace Stress and Aggression Project - Rita Kowalski, Lyle Yorks and Mariann Jelinek Ways of Knowing - Our Rosetta Stone for Practice Theatre in Participatory Action Research - Meghna Guhathakurta Experiences from Bangladesh Changing the Culture of Dependancy to Allow for Successful Outcomes in Participatory Research - María Teresa Castillo, María Dolores Viga de Alva and Federico Dickinson 14 Years of Experience in Yucatan, Mexico Health Promotion and Participatory Action Research - Lai Fong Chui The Significance of Participatory Praxis in Developing Participatory Health Intervention ′This Is so Democratic!!′ Action Research and Policy Development in East Timor - Ernie Stringer ′No - You Don′t Know How We Feel′ - Gillian Chowns Collaborative Inquiry Using Children Facing the Life-Threatening Illness of a Parent IT and Action Sense-Making - Chris Dymek Making Sense of a New Technology PART FOUR: SKILLS Introduction to Skills - Peter Reason and Hilary Bradbury Negotiating the Challenges of Participatory Action Research - Jill Grant, Geoff Nelson and Terry Mitchell Relationships, Power, Participation, Change and Credibility Getting in, Getting on, Getting out - Kate Louise McArdle On Working with Second-Person Inquiry Groups Facilitation as Action Research in the Moment - Jenny Mackewn Muddling through - Geoff Mead Facing the Challenges of Managing a Large-Scale Action Research Project Insider Action Research - David Coghlan and A B (Rami) Shani The Dynamics of Developing New Capabilities Teaching Reflective Practice in the Action Science / Action Inquiry Tradition - Steven S Taylor, Jenny W Rudolph and Erica Gabrielle Foldy Key Stages, Concepts and Practices The Praxis of Educating Action Researchers - Morten Levin Finding Form in Writing for Action Research - Judi Marshall Concluding Reflections - Peter Reason and Hilary Bradbury Whither Action Research

About the Author :
I retired in 2009 from an academic career at the University of Bath in which my primary contribution was to the theory and practice of participatory action research. I was Director of the Centre for Action Research in Professional Practice (CARPP) and co-founder of the MSc in Responsibility and Business Practice. In these programmes we pioneered graduate education based on collaborative, experiential and action-oriented forms of inquiry.

Review :
  This it is a compendium of guidance, reassuring the action researcher of the role of the spirit of inquiry, the often tacit nature of knowledge, the complexity and messiness of the action research process and the organizational and social worlds it inhabits and seeks to change. [...] Those PhD supervisors who have concerns about the link between individual postgraduate research and a wider social change mission have a new ‘bible’ in this handbook, as the relationship is clear throughout between academic knowledge and social and organizational change-focused purposes and practices.