1. Action Research to Promote the Social Stewardship of Ecosystem Services Introduction Peter Reason

2. The Crisis of Sustainability Climate change is serious, real and happening now Degradation of ecosystems everywhere Sixth great extinction of species Population at 6 bn moving toward 8/9 bn Obscene gap between rich and poor Limits to growth: Peak Oil approaching; ‘Peak water’ on the way?

3. Lester Brown We have created an economy that cannot… take us where we want to go… the economic policies that have yielded extraordinary growth in the world economy are the same ones that are destroying its support systems

5. Action Research Worthwhile purposes Practical issues Participation and Democracy Many ways of knowing Emergence

6. Practical Issues Action research is not a methodology, it is an orientation toward inquiry and toward managing human affairs Addresses significant and worthwhile issues Aims to produce knowledge and understanding that is useful to individuals, organizations and society Knowledge at point of action rather than at point of reflection We are challenged to respond to the crisis of sustainability

7. Richard Rorty We cannot regard truth as a goal of inquiry. The purpose of inquiry is to achieve agreement among human beings about what to do, to bring about consensus on the ends to be achieved and the means used to achieve those ends. Inquiry that does not achieve coordination is not inquiry, but simply wordplay.

8. Participation and Democracy If we want to research issues of practice we must engage with people not impose on people –The actors are the ones who have the insider knowledge –The actors are the ones who can do things –Engaging in research is educational and liberating –People have a right to be involved in knowledge creation –Pedagogy of the oppressed and pedagogy of the privileged

9. Many ways of knowing Because action research engages people in explorations of practice it can involve an ‘extended epistemology’: –Experiential knowing –Presentational knowing –Propositional knowing –Practical knowing Cycles of action and reflection

10. Emergence Action researchers engage their collaborators in action and reflection in real life issues in real time This is necessarily messy, evolutionary, emergent –Understanding grows –Skills of inquiry grow –People feel empowered –Community of inquiry grows –As the unexpected happens –As new inquiry questions spin off

11. Creating an attitude of inquiry An attitude of open curiosity A willingness to suspend taken-for-granted assumptions An ability to fully respect the perspectives of others Courage to try new behaviours in practice A sense that little is ever fixed in life

12. Three paths for inquiry First-person reflective practice: am I acting with inquiry and inviting others to do so? Second-person: engaging relevant others in face-to-face inquiry Transforming whole systems (organizations, communities, societies) towards greater inquiry, learning organizations

13. Three aspects of sustainable practice Awareness –What the issues are –Their urgency –Their systemic nature –The limits of human agency Agency –An experienced capacity to act: role and skills Association –We cannot address these issues alone

14. Six narratives of action research Gill Coleman: Adoption of low carbon technology Hilary Bradbury: Sustainable Enterprise Executive Roundtable Barbara Bodorkós & György Pataki: Local communities empowered to plan? Mark Gater: What’s money got to do with it? Judi Marshall: Action Research as adult education David Ballard: Organizational break through to high level ecological management