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 <diamond...@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:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] *On Behalf Of *Chris > Corrigan > *Sent:* 05 December 2008 15:10 > *To:* osl...@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.bernshau...@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 < > jamiesn...@yahoo.com> > An: osl...@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 > > _______________________________________________________________________ > Sensationsangebot verlängert: WEB.DE FreeDSL - Telefonanschluss + DSL > für nur 16,37 Euro/mtl.!* http://dsl.web.de/?ac=OM.AD.AD008K13805B7069a > > * > * > ========================================================== > osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu > ------------------------------ > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, > view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: > http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html > > To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: > http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist > > > > -- > 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 > * * ========================================================== > osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To > subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of > osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: > http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about > OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist > * * ========================================================== > osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To > subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of > osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: > http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about > OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist > > > * * ========================================================== > osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To > subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of > osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: > http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about > OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist -- 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 * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist