Table of Contents

Introduction - Peter Reason and Hilary Bradbury
Inquiry and Participation in Search of a World Worthy of Human Aspiration
PART ONE: GROUNDINGS
Theory and Practice - Bj[sl]orn Gustavsen
The Mediating Discourse
Participatory (Action) Research in Social Theory - Orlando Fals Borda
Origins and Challenges
Action Research in the Workplace - William Pasmore
The Socio-Technical Perspective
Infusing Race into the US Discourse on Action Research - Ella Edmondson Bell
Uneven Ground - Patricia Maguire
Feminisms and Participatory, Action-Oriented Research
Power and Knowledge - John Gaventa and Andrea Cornwall
Knowledge and Participatory Research - Peter Park
Exploring the Relevance of Critical Theory for Action Research - Stephen Kemmis
Emancipatory Action Research in the Footsteps of J[um]urgen Habermas
Pragmatic Action Research and the Struggle to Transform Universities into Learning Communities - Morten Levin and Davydd Greenwood
The Humanistic Approach to Action Research - John Rowan
Engaging Sympathies - Yvonna S Lincoln
Relationships between Action Research and Social Constructivism
The Relationship of `Systems Thinking′ to Action Research - Robert Louis Flood
Action Research as the Hidden Curriculum of the Western Tradition - Olav Eikeland
PART TWO: PRACTICES
Action Science - Victor J Friedman
Creating Communities of Inquiry in Communities of Practice
I Wish This Were a Poem of Practices of Participatory Research - Budd L Hall
The Practice of Co-Operative Inquiry - John Heron and Peter Reason
Research `with′ Rather Than `on′ People
Appreciative Inquiry - James D Ludema, David L Cooperrider and Frank J Barrett
The Power of the Unconditional Positive Question
Large Group Processes as Action Research - Ann W Martin
The Use of Words - [sl]Oyvind P[lo]alshaugen
Improving Enterprises by Improving Their Conversations
Ethnodrama - Jim Mienczakowski and Stephen Morgan
Constructing Participatory, Experiential and Compelling Action Research through Performance
Clinical/Inquiry Research - Edgar H Schein
Community Action Research - Peter Senge and Otto Scharmer
Learning as a Community of Practitioners, Consultants and Researchers
The Practice of Action Inquiry - William R Torbert
The Turn to Action and the Linguistic Turn - Lesley Treleaven
Towards an Integrated Methodology
Educational Action Research - Ken Zeicher
PART THREE: EXEMPLARS
Working Together, Learning Together - Mark Baldwin
Co-Operative Inquiry in the Development of Complex Practice by Teams of Social Workers
The Early Mothering Project - Penelope A Barrett
What Happened When the Words ′Action Research′ Came to Life for a Group of Midwives
Citizens′ Participation in Natural Resource Management - Yogesh Bhatt and Rajesh Tandon
Learning with The Natural Step - Hilary Bradbury
Action Research to Promote Conversations for Sustainable Development
Transforming Lives - Gloria Bravette Gordon
Towards Bicultural Competence
Action Research to Develop an Interorganizational Network - Rupert F Chisholm
Transpersonal Co-Operative Inquiry - John Heron
Using Co-Operative Inquiry to Transform Evaluation of Nursing Students′ Clinical Practice - Marcia D Hills
Collaborative Inquiry with African-American Community Leaders - James G Kelly, Lynne O Mock and S Darius Tandon
Comments on a Participatory Action Research Process
Participatory Research and Education for Social Change - Helen M Lewis
Highlander Research and Education Center
Creative Arts and Photography in Participatory Action Research in Guatemala - M Brinton Lykes
The Art of Clinical Inquiry in Information Technology Related Change - Joe McDonagh and David Coghlan
The Sights and Sounds of Indigenous Knowledge - Timothy Pyrch and Mar[ac]ia Teresa Castillo
Participatory Action Research in Southern Tanzania, with Special Reference to Women - Marja-Liisa Swantz, Elizabeth Ndedya and Mwajuma Saiddy Masaiganah
Six Street Youth Who Could... - Elizabeth Whitmore and Colette McKee
PART FOUR: SKILLS
Collaborative Off-Line Reflection - Jenny W Rudolph, Steven S Taylor and Erica Gabrielle Foldy
A Way to Develop Skill in Action Science and Action Inquiry
On Working with Graduate Research Students - Peter Reason and Judi Marshall
The Mirror, the Magnifying Glass, the Compass and the Map - Yoland Wadsworth
Facilitating Participatory Action Research
Self-Reflective Inquiry Practices - Judi Marshall
The Third Task of Universities or How to Get Universities to Serve Their Communities - G[um]oran Brulin
Conclusion - Hilary Bradbury and Peter Reason
Broadening the Bandwidth of Validity: Issues as Choice-Points to Ensure Quality in 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. Hilary Bradbury Huang, Ph.D., is Professor in the Management Division of Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). Her research, scholarly activism and teaching focus on the human and organizational dimensions of creating healthy communities. At OHSU she teaches in the healthcare MBA and physician leadership development programs.  She also develops the action research approach to Community Based Participatory Research for Health. 

Hilary is editor-in-chief of Action Research Journal.  She co-edited the bestselling Handbook of Action Research (Sage, 2001; 2008) with Peter Reason.  Her journal articles have appeared in Organization Science, Sloan Management Review & Journal of Management Inquiry, among others. Previously Hilary was Research Associate Professor at University of Southern California and Director of Sustainable Business Research at the Center for Sustainable Cities. Before that she was Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at Case Western Reserve University.  She lives with her family in Portland, OR.
Hilary Bradbury, Ph.D., is Director of Sustainable Business Programs at University of Southern California Center for Sustainable Cities, www.sustainablecities.edu. She brings her expertise in action research to work with businesses on issues of sustainability. Prior to this she was Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at Case Western Reserve University| Weatherhead School of Management in Cleveland, Ohio. She has published widely in journals including Organization Science and Academy of Management Executive. She is editor of Action Research and co-editor with Peter Reason of the bestselling Handbook of Action Research (Sage, 2001, 2006, 2008). Hilary is multi lingual, having grown up in Ireland and having worked in Germany, Switzerland and Japan. She lives in LA with her family. The project that takes most of her time now is SEER (Sustainable Enterprise Executive Roundtable). SEER enables collaborative learning among Southern California business leaders so that more sustainable practices result, benefiting the environment and the bottom line, through projects that promote sustainable development.SEER is committed to developing actionable knowledge and measurable positive impact. www.seer.net. Also see: www.Bradbury-Huang.net. 

Reviews

`This is truly a significant work. Not only has action research reached maturity, but in the context of the postmodern constructionist debates its scope has been dramatically expanded, its conceptual underpinnings deepened, and its forms of practice enormously enriched. The present confluence of humanism and pragmatism has inspired lively conversations between us; the work has the potential to transform the very idea of social science′ - Kenneth J Gergen, author of An Invitation to Social Construction and Mary Gergen, author of Feminist Reconstructions in Psychology `A wholly new kind of human inquiry is emerging. It is to do with taking our own, previously ignored, spontaneously responsive, living involvements with our surroundings seriously. Rather than with views and perspectives, rather than with a one-way manipulative understanding, gained by merely observing movements from a distance, it is concerned with quite a different kind of participatory, experiential understanding - the kind of understanding we have when playing a part in an activity which also to an extent `plays′ us. Workers are beginning to bring to light the many different knowledges present to us in the different practical ways in which we can be relationally involved with the others and othernesses around us. Everything changes when we get up close and personal. All that is solid melts into air! In this exciting Handbook, Reason and Bradbury have collected together a large number of the central workers in this new and developing sphere of participative inquiry. Overall, in the detailed explorations they conduct, just as in becoming familiar with a new and strange landscape, they help us get to know our `way about′ in its rich and intricate `landscape′. Literally, this is a landmark volume′ - John Shotter, University of New Hampshire `The Handbook of Action Research is truly a remarkable book. We are greatly indebted to the editors Peter Reason and Hilary Bradbury, who managed to avoid the usual tower of Babel, and succeeded to forge and orchestrate the somewhat incoherent mosaic of action research, with its many voices, into an intelligent comprehensive and logical whole. This handbook provides a much needed clarification of a critical transition in the social sciences′ - Hans van Beinum, General Editor of Concepts and Transformation, International Journal of Action Research and Organizational Renewal. `A remarkable reframing of action research that engages the spirit as well as the mind, in inquiry that matters, shared among inquirers who matter. "Validity" as we once knew it will never be the same after these improvements. Wonderfully provocative!′ - Karl Weick, University of Michigan ′A valuable resource for both researchers and for research methods courses′ - Dr Ruth Northway, Nurse Researcher