Human Inquiry in Action

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.

`a significant and stunning contribution to the growing literature on new paradigm research... New paradigm inquiry is finally and ineluctably producing a literature of its own as powerful and persuasive as that which exists for conventional, positivism inquiry. Reason′s new book will be a major building-block of that body of methodological and case study literature. For its careful definitions, its methodological deliberations and its exemplars, its utility will be likely long-lived′ - Yvonna S Lincoln, Associate Professor, Vanderbilt University`a very exciting book, which will be of great interest to all those who are involved in new paradigm research, and all those who may be sceptical about it′ - John Rowan, Self & Society`As an example of practical epistemology, this work is refreshing. It is down to earth, politically motivated and applied. It is about collaborative research inquiry with and for people, and the development of an alternative methodology for research in the social sciences.... worth reading′ - Metascience

• Introduction - Peter ReasonPART ONE: DEVELOPMENTS IN METHODOLOGYThe Co-operative Inquiry Group - Peter ReasonValidity in Co-operative Inquiry - John HeronA Phenomenological Psychodrama Workshop - Peter HawkinsStorytelling as Inquiry - Peter Reason and Peter HawkinsPART TWO: VENTURES IN CO-OPERATIVE INQUIRYWhole Person Medical Practice - Peter ReasonParticipatory Inquiry as an Instrument of Grass-roots Development - Marja-Liisa Swantz and Arja Vainio-MattilaManaging to Learn - Robert KrimAction Inquiry in City HallInteractive Holistic Research - Ian CunninghamResearching Self Managed LearningImpressions of the Other Reality - John Herona Co-operative Inquiry into Altered States of ConsciousnessReflection in Action - Judi Marshall and Adrian McLeanExploring Organizational CultureReflections - Peter Reason