Human Inquiry for Living Systems

Yoland Wadsworth is a pathbreaker in research methodology and its use in social research in health, community and human services for over forty years. She has been an applied sociologist and consultant to community-based non-government organisations, self-help groups, and state, federal and local governments; an Adjunct Professor in the Centre for Applied Social Research, RMIT University; Principal Fellow in the McCaughey VicHealth Centre for Mental Health and Community Wellbeing, University of Melbourne; and deputy to the Director of the Policy & Research Branch in Premier & Cabinet, Victorian government. She is also author of the best-selling Do It Yourself Social Research (Vol 1 in this 40th anniversary Routledge trilogy), and Everyday Evaluation on the Run (Vol 2 in this 40th anniversary Routledge trilogy).

‘… this work is unquestionably original and in major ways innovative.’Raewyn Connell, International Sociological Association's quadrennial awardee for Excellence in Research and Practice‘Yoland Wadsworth displays an extraordinary capacity to integrate many different perspectives, theories, constructs and approaches within an overarching accessible framework. … Sound and persuasive, insightful, important and inviting. A great contribution’Michael Quinn Patton, Author of Utilization-Focused Evaluation‘... the value of work at this level is paradigmatic’Peter Reason Emeritus, Editor, Action Research Journal‘Highly original. . . Credible and useful. Grounded in pioneering empirical research.’Danny Burns, Professor of Organisational Learning‘Brilliant ... I’m not aware of any other book of this nature. The examples are impressive.’Linette Hawkins, Social Work Educator‘An integrative book by a grandmaster of the field is a treasure.’David Coghlan, Trinity College Dublin

• 1. Some introductory foundations to build on 2. Living systems 3. Cycles of research, evaluation and inquiring for life 4. More (truly) living human services 5. Ten examples of building in inquiry for living human service systems 6. Concluding words Appendix 1. Applying living systems inquiry to evaluation facilitation – an example Appendix 2. Applying living systems inquiry to organisational improvement – an example Appendix 3. What’s the Myers-Briggs® indicator got to do with it? Appendix 4. An example of use of the sequence of ‘whole cycle’ strategic research questions—in health promotion practice Appendix 5. Other integral theories of change