race – that intersect with the previous emphasis on economic justice.
The heritage of action research is both wider and deeper than just the past few decades. Olav Eikeland (2006) traces the ethical orientation of action research back to Aristotle, whose notions of multiple ways of knowing included what we might call the primacy of the practical (techne) and cultivation of cycles of action and reflection (praxis). Action research also provides interesting points of connection to Indigenous ways of knowing because of a growing openness to the arts (Etmanski and Bishop, 2017). In turn, this allows for connection to the more integrative Eastern paradigm of mindfulness that weaves threads from Buddhist teachings to Greek and to Western Enlightenment philosophers such as Montaigne. Indeed recent scholarship is troubling the simple notions of what is East and what is West.
The contemporary manifestation of action research as ART includes attention to both internal (subjective) and external (objective) worlds, and goes beyond overly rationalistic formats to include the arts. Since the 1970s, explicit concern with social liberation has been a central component of all action research. Without this concern, indeed, action research is devitalized to a set of powerful but uncritical techniques. The concept/practice of mindfulness is more globally appreciated for its help in becoming choiceful with intention and emotion. In short, action research has always been transforming and with its practice emphasis and pragmatic purpose has been open to methodological innovation, which in turn opens the door to new ways of living in the world. Given the growing eco-social crises of our time, action research finds a contemporary expression in Action Research for Transformations (ART) (Bradbury et al., 2019) as a call for creative experiments in how to live better together. Our aspiration is that more of us who practice action-oriented scholarship may revitalize our social institutions as social systems learn to become beneficial presences on our shared Earth.
In Figure 5.1, action-oriented transformations research is presented as an orientation to learning that makes it possible to know ourselves simultaneously as scientists and caring citizens, consciously bringing reflexive agency (‘inner work’) to peer learning experiments with our stakeholders (‘outer work’) in service to a better world. This orientation is a means and an end. By ‘relational space’ we mean finding resonance with the ones we work with, the so-called ‘objects’ of our study, using the myriad insights of group dynamics while also attuning to ourselves. Such artful processes often require respect for generative silence (so as not to be burdened by too much ‘self’), speaking from the heart, use of the arts, listening generously, participating constructively, hanging in when confidence is shaken, and … yes, enjoying ourselves! This in turn enriches our conceptual space, a space for better ideas, richer insights, to meet and align. When these spaces are well mingled, transformative experiments become possible. In other words, action-oriented researchers for transformations – ARTists – require equal emphasis on relational, conceptual and praxis spaces. Therefore, in Figure 5.1 you see these core components, linking relational with the more familiar conceptual space of scholarship and then to pragmatic expression in experiments. Action-oriented transformations research is, therefore, an invitation to inquiry-in-practice on how there can be a more concerted emphasis on making a positive difference with the stakeholders to an issue in response to the crises we now face. Intention is key. Without intention toward transformation, scholarship is simply another set of good ideas, disconnected from experience, unembodied.
Figure 5.1 Action-oriented Research for Transformations (ART)
A case follows. It's intended to provide detail enough to clarify what has just been sketched and, one hopes, to connect lofty sounding abstractions to practice. In the following case, the elements of purpose, listening/inquiry in practice, making a positive difference with the stakeholders to an issue, resonance within the subject/object distinction, specific methodologies, dynamically reconnecting reflection to sense-making and active experiments in learning, use of the arts, working transformatively, overcoming institutional inertia – and, not to forget, enjoying ourselves too – will become evident.
A Case of Transforming Self and Community: The Journal of Action Research
When baking an apple pie from scratch, quipped physicist Carl Sagan, you must start with the big bang. In other words, as everything is connected to everything else, the location of a pragmatic starting point is always a choice; Similarly, when recounting a case. Let's take August 29 as a start then. I remember it because I was celebrating my birthday. This was a day punctuated by getting to give a keynote address at an international conference titled, ‘Transformations 2017’, hosted by the University of Dundee, Scotland. This date provides a good starting point from which to look back and see specific notable results which have emerged through the practice of action-oriented research for transformations, namely: i) a new articulation of Action-oriented Research for Transformations (ART); ii), refreshed emphasis by the Action Research journal to develop and publish papers that exemplify ART; iii) stewarding a new global community (Action Research Plus) which gathers online and in person to provide content, curriculum and gatherings for those interested in this ARTful practice of knowledge creation. What follows is therefore a case that integrates personal, interpersonal and impersonal findings. It is not presented, as is conventional scholarship, as a case of work being done ‘somewhere by someones’, though its methodologies and principles are similar to the many such disembodied cases. Instead it is a case offered by the author in the first person.
The ‘Transformations 2017’ conference was itself a pearl in a strand among events and efforts championed by scholars concerned by climate change. Professor Karen O'Brien, a geographer, was figural in such events. Karen was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for work with the International Panel on Climate Change. Since then, she has come to feel stymied by the reluctance among IPCC team scientists to even mention ‘transformation’ in connection to climate change. The term was deemed too political, too contentious. There is wisdom in this reluctance given that outright science denial often hinges on the claim that science is biased. Additionally, there is the ongoing sensitivity of scholars to the negative colonizing impact of zealous experts. Still, if talk of transformation is said by scholars to be taboo, then talk of pragmatic efforts, much less engagement of scholars with non-elites, becomes impossible to discuss. Imagine if even 20% of IPCC funding could be spent on local experiments in combatting climate change in ways that those involved might learn from and build upon, harvesting the collective power of abundant, small-scale, nature-based efforts. To get close to such an outcome requires acknowledgment of the need for transformation and a scholarly practice that can support that. It was in this context that I was invited to talk about action research as an orientation to transformative knowledge creation.
Despite the often-unquestioned norms of the scientific approach and the heretofore marginalization of action researching as a challenge to the dominant regime, interest in action research has been climbing exponentially since the 1970s. As such, it is a sibling to many efforts today that call for a transformation of the very practice of science, many of which may be found in the chapters of this Handbook. Action researchers can understand the sensitivities around the term transformation without shying away from it. We can seek to be nuanced. Also because of the centrality of stakeholders in decision making, we can strengthen ethical guardrails and have our inclusionary efforts be more evident.
A key part of the relational work of action research is to locate allies in other fields and see what we might co-create together. I therefore approached the Transformations conference as an opportunity to meet thinking partners in the field of climate change. As the editor in chief of a journal, I was also in a position to convene a guest editor team for a special issue that allowed us to blend ideas of action research with those of new allies who do not identify with the legacy or label of action research. With like-spirited guest editors Karen O'Brien, Steve Waddell, Marina Apgar, Ben Teehankee and Ioan Fazey, our collaboration eventuated in an editorial essay which became an important articulation of ART (Bradbury et al., 2019). We also succeeded
