How Local Participation in National Planning Creates New Development Opportunities

This study looks into the role of participation in influencing the adaptation of national policies to generate local economic development opportunities. The main question put forward is: What are the preconditions for creating new local development opportunities in a national state’s government planning process? The subject of the study is a planning process for the designation of a national park in the southwestern part of Norway. The analysis looks into three factors from the perspective of power: the mobilization and power base development of local stakeholders, the planning authority’s intention and structure for participation and change, and how conflicts are handled in the dialogue arenas. The conclusion with respect to regional innovation literature is that local stakeholders could make a difference by articulating both power over and power with and that conflicts may be useful if the planning authority takes the participants’ claims seriously by showing compromise or allowing integration of interests. From such preconditions new local economic opportunities could be created by collaboration.     

Collaborative Inquiry as a Critical Systemic Approach to Improving Ethics and Governance in the Philippine National Police

Improving ethics and governance in policing is often considered an institutional function that police agencies do as ??expert?? institutions. Participation by other stakeholders may be welcome so long as police are able to control the processes and mechanisms of participation. This paper, based on research done with the Philippine National Police, argues that collaborative inquiry could be an effective critical systemic approach to participation by the wider society in police reform. This could enable both police and non-police stakeholders to work together towards mutual understanding and cooperation as equals towards better policing. This participatory approach is not meant to replace the institutional mechanisms that the police use for their own reform effort, but it is supposed to complement them. The research on which this paper is based was an attempt to design a model for collaborative inquiry at the local municipal level of policing in the Philippines, since the municipality is the lowest operational level for the Philippines?? police service. The results of that study suggest that it is possible to establish such a mechanism and make it work, in effect establishing a Close Knit Knowledge Organisation at the lowest level of operational policing.     

The next industrial revolution: Integrated services and goods

The outputs or products of an economy can be divided into services products and goods products (due to manufacturing,construction,agriculture and mining).To date,the services and goods products have,for the most part,been separately mass produced.However,in contrast to the first and second industrial revolutions which respectively focused on the development and the mass production of goods,the next - or third - industrial revolution is focused on the integration of services and/or goods; it is beginning in this second decade of the 21st Century.The Third Industrial Revolution(TIR) is based on the confluence of three major technological enablers(i.e.,big data analytics,adaptive services and digital manufacturing);they underpin the integration or mass customization of services and/or goods.As detailed in an earlier paper,we regard mass customization as the simultaneous and real-time management of supply and demand chains,based on a taxonomy that can be defined in terms of its underpinning component and management foci.The benefits of real-time mass customization cannot be over-stated as goods and services become indistinguishable and are co-produced - as "servgoods" - in real-time,resulting in an overwhelming economic advantage to the industrialized countries where the consuming customers are at the same time the co-producing producers.     

Co-operative Inquiry: Changing Interprofessional Practice

Recent government guidance concerning the welfare of children emphasizes the necessity for change in interprofessional practice. This paper examines how co-operative inquiry enabled a diverse professional group to inquire into how change can be promoted in complex practice systems. It considers the influence of external stakeholders, highlights the consequent tension between task and process, and addresses the implications for the role of facilitators.     

The Vanguard Method as Applied to the Design and Management of English and Welsh Children’s Services Departments

This paper follows several case studies where the children’s services departments of English and Welsh local authorities have fundamentally redesigned the way they worked following the application of the Vanguard Method (Seddon, Systems thinking in the public sector, 2008), a particular form of systems thinking. After first studying the way the children’s social care service worked as a system, the social workers in these authorities were able to demonstrate the way that government-prescribed IT and performance measures were restricting the way they could do what was shown to matter to the children in their care. The paper will document how, after being granted ministerial permission to suspend the use of their old performance measures and IT, a new set of operating principles was developed and employed. The redesigned system has shown encouraging early results. Evidence from these case studies (following Yin 2009) is presented in the form of recorded operational improvements and statements from participants. The paper will be of topical relevance to all involved in social care in the light of the government-commissioned Munro Review (Munro, The Munro Review of child protection: final report, 2011). The issues discussed will also be germane to the many other public sector partner agencies involved in the delivery of social care services (e.g. police, health, housing associations).     

江苏农村居民收入差距、消费差异与消费潜力研究———基于江苏农村细化SAM的乘数分析

在所建立的2002年江苏农村居民消费细化社会核算矩阵(Social Accounting Matrix,SAM)的基础上,通过SAM乘数的分解,从不同商品及服务消费和不同收入分组两方面对江苏农村居民消费净开放效应进行分析,并将账户乘数和固定价格乘数效应进行了比较分析.主要研究结论:第一,居住、食品和交通通讯是目前江苏农村居民的消费热点,但教育文化娱乐、衣着和医疗保健消费重视程度不足;第二,除最高收入户外,江苏各收入阶层对家庭设备及服务具有较大的消费欲望,消费潜力巨大;第三,中低收入及以下收入阶层对医疗保健和教育文化娱乐消费欲望非常强烈,政府应该在相关福利政策上给予一定支持,以促进这两类消费的良性发展;最后,为继续保持江苏农村居民交通通讯的发展,政府仍然有必要加强农村交通通讯基础设施建设,从而改变居民消费行为.     

Systemic Research Practices Towards the Development of an Eco-Community in Vietnam: some Joint Post-Facto Reflections

In this article we discuss how an interdisciplinary research team partnered with a variety of stakeholders concerned with and/or affected by the impacts of climate change in the Red River Delta of Vietnam. The research, undertaken from 2016 to 2018, drew upon a wide range of methods to investigate systemically these impacts – with a view to the research inputting into the development of (more) sustainable ways of living. The research solicited various accounts of the experience of climate change in the community, set up learning processes in community meetings, and created an interface with government officials positioned at commune, district, provincial, and national levels. The intention was to offer support towards developing a learning process (broadly defined as including learnings/systemic inquiry across organizational levels of the society) to pursue options for sustainable living. The article offers our post-facto reflections which render more explicit (to ourselves and for the benefit of audiences) how the research team, with Hoang as lead researcher, facilitated the inquiry process towards developing a synthesis which underscored the assets for resilience to climate change and supported interventions to strengthen such (defined) assets.

     

Sustainability,Systems Thinking and Professional Practice

This article explores the impact of the new sustainability agenda on the occupational and professional needs of those who have taken educational and training programmes in the environmental field either at undergraduate or postgraduate level or through relevant professional institutions’ continuing professional development programmes. It also describes a one-day workshop for the professionals on sustainable development, based on systems thinking and practice. The workshop provides a model for developing greater understanding and effective action in professional practice, by using dialogue and interprofessional learning to explore approaches to sustainability in a variety of business and professional contexts. It introduces the principles underpinning the concept of sustainability and provides tools to support the integration of sustainable development into professional practice and organisational change.     

Playing Dissymmetry in Action Research: The Role of Power and Differences in Promoting Participative Knowledge and Change

This article explores the importance of power and dissymmetry in promoting participative knowledge and change in action research. Based on the analysis of two action research cases, the paper builds its argument by analyzing two key aspects: the construction of the action research setting and its maintenance during the process. It does so by highlighting the decisions assumed with respect to the relationship between researchers and participants and with respect to power issues. The findings indicate that promoting a functional dissymmetry in internal relationships allows distribution of the necessary types of power that make the participants use their authority and knowledge to invest in change. Thus, the distributed leadership is essential every time an organization needs to create a realistic and workable change of roles and responsibilities inside its boundaries. The article discusses some key factors in employing dissymmetry for sustained learning and knowledge-sharing.     

Participatory Design for Democracy and Wellbeing: Narrowing the Gap Between Service Outcomes and Perceived Needs

This paper explains how narratives told by Aboriginal service users and Aboriginal service providers form the basis for redesigning the approach to complex interrelated problems associated with unemployment, alcohol, domestic violence and homelessness. On the basis of the case study it develops an argument for how it is possible to mainstream the matching of services to meet perceived needs. It makes the case that (1) it is possible for democracy to be re-worked in such a way that (a) collective needs (and steering for the common good) can be married to (2) decentralized policy making (and steering from below). Sustainable participatory policy based on user perceptions of what works why and how could be the basis for enabling people to set aside narrow difference and to consider different ways to govern democratically. We conclude that bureaucratic and compartmentalized responses are inadequate to address complex multifaceted problems and that the process of engagement is in itself important for democracy and wellbeing. The area of concern is to address identity and social inclusion. The research explores convergent user-centric design. The criteria for UCD are: Improving wellbeing, Enhancing participation in thinking through if-then scenarios, Matching services to perceived need, Enhancing rational decisions, Generating evidence based policy based on mapping and modeling, Attaining sustainability, Fostering creativity and innovation, Building communities, Expanding opportunity. A dedicated website describes the work of the ARC team http://www.socsci.flinders.edu.au/av/pathways/binder.php.     

Managing Action Research: The PEArL Framework

The difficulty of managing and validating Action Research field studies has been widely discussed. Several different approaches to Action Research have emerged, and one of the most widely used models is Checkland’s FMA model, where a framework is provided to facilitate interested individuals in ‘recovering’ the route of the inquiry. In this paper, I argue that the FMA model is a valuable tool for planning the application of theoretical ideas in a practical situation, but that, as a guide to Action Research, it still fails to provide a sense of the manner in which an inquiry is undertaken. The PEArL mnemonic has been previously offered as a guide to facilitate researchers, participants, and those interested in gaining an appreciation of the manner in which an inquiry is conducted. In this paper, it is argued that applying the PEArL elements does not provide insight into the dynamic nature of collaborative inquiry. In order to gain a sense of the manner in which an inquiry was undertaken it is necessary to apply the PEArL mnemonic alongside a framework that facilitates the flow of the action research cycle. To illustrate the framework, an Action Research field study is described that was undertaken with residents and key workers in a shelter for the homeless, where the aim was to create a shared understanding of complex needs and support requirements.

Validating Action Research Field Studies: PEArL

The difficulty of establishing the validity of Action Research field studies has been well documented. Enabling interested individuals to follow the route of inquiry, or recover the inquiry process, has provided some means of addressing the difficult issue of validation. Such an approach, however, still fails to provide a sense of the manner in which an inquiry was undertaken, which can be important when individuals, participants in the inquiry or otherwise, are making their own judgments concerning validity. In this paper we argue that by supporting any interested individuals in making their own judgments concerning the manner in which the inquiry process was undertaken, it is possible for a public perception of the authenticity and credibility, or character, of that inquiry process to emerge. We argue that such a perception is an essential aspect of making judgments concerning the validity of an Action Research project.     

When Social Workers Meet Special Education Teachers: Action Research to Implement Curricular Changes in Taiwanese Special Education Systems

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) offering supported employment services in Taiwan recently have identified a missing link between their programs and the vocational programs students with disabilities received in secondary special education system. Sponsored by a national initiative aimed to enhance public education through crossover trials and social inclusion under the umbrella of ??HighScope Taiwan??, academics and mainly senior social workers devoted to supported employment for persons with intellectual disabilities started a two-way outreach program through action engagement in 2007. Action research became the common focus of the joint task forces across social work, public education systems, and academia. The article provides field-based reflections of the action research project and suggests ways in which practice of action research may increase social impact in the professional development of individuals.     

Construction of Social Development Index as a Theoretical Research Practice in Action Research by Using Soft Systems Methodology

This paper provides an illustration of the application of Soft Systems Methodology to construct social development index, based on a sociological concept of development proposed by Wirutomo et al. (Pengembangan Indeks Pembangunan Sosial (IPS) Bagi Sektor Informal di Perkotaan: Menuju Kebijakan Inklusif bagi Usaha Kecil, 2011). An action research (AR) is conducted in the field of street vendor promotion program perceived to be representing the social development practice. While the improvement of fundamental elements of societal life, i.e., social structure, culture, and social process can be identified in the field of street vendor promotion program, it is believed that the same development aspects can be explored at many other development sectors. A preliminary social development index is conctructed by using a single sector development program. It is expected that through a further research agenda, a comprehensive social development profile equipped with its related index can be presented. The findings of this SSM-based AR can be considered ??as primary ??thesis?? derived from ??messes?? or ??surprising facts?? of a real world problematic situation?? as described by Stephens et al. (Syst Pract Action Res 22:463?C474, 2009). As an AR practice, this research is a research interest, instead of a problem solving interest in AR (McKay and Marshall, Inf Technol People 14:46?C59, 2001); it is also a theoretical research practice, instead of a business change practice/empirical research practice and regular business practice (Cronholm and Goldkuhl, The 2nd European Conference on Research Methods in Business and Management (ECRM 2003), 2003), and it is an interpretative actions and theory development actions as mentioned by Cronholm and Goldkuhl (The 2nd European Conference on Research Methods in Business and Management (ECRM 2003), 2003). This paper also provides an illustration of a variant relationship between P and A as introduced by McKay and Marshall (Inf Technol People 14:46?C59, 2001), which is ??there are some elements of P that overlap with some elements of A??.     

Human inquiry: Steps towards emancipatory practice

In this paper we explore the contribution of work in Human Inquiry to the debate about what might constitute authentic emancipatory practice and about how such an ideal might be approached. We beghin by considering some key values, issues, and commitments which characterise this work and distinguish it from other established research traditions. A number of distinct approaches to the practice of human inquiry have been articulated. These are referred to but it is not our purpose to review particular approaches in detail here. Rather our aim is to move from this overview of human inquiry to consider some important implications for practice. In particular, we look at Bateson's theory of levels of learning and explore ways in which both the intellectual and the more personal frameworks of participants can contribute to, and at times impede, the kinds of mutual learning with which human inquiries are concerned. We illustrate this discussion by drawing on examples from our own work in human inquiry. Here we aim to highlight particular implications and issues that might arise within human inquiries. One source of illustrations is Peter's work with general and complementary practitioners in a primary health care centre, the other is Anne's work with UWE student groups acting as consultants for local community organisations. In each case we consider some origins, forms, and expressions of power differences and show how empowerment can occur as participants learn within and across Bateson's levels as inquiries progress. We conclude by summarising the evidence of and opportunities for empowerment in each case and by showing how a deeper appreciation of Bateson's levels of learning can further understanding of the nature of emancipatory practice. Finally, we make more general suggestions about the role of approaches to Human Inquiry in future emancipatory practice.     

From Researching Regions at a Distance to Participatory Network Building: Integrating Action Research and Economic Geography

This paper describes the change in a researcher's practices from one of studying regional industrial development at a distance to one of working closely with a network of agri-food managers. This is accompanied by a discussion of the methodological and theoretical possibilities for an action research inspired economic geography. Some of the core characteristics of a pragmatic conceptualization of action research are revised. It is argued that theoretical developments within economic geography make possible a dialogue between researchers and local actors and that economic geography is challenged to accept that knowledge is generated through such a dialogue. Attempts to create a dialogue between action research and economic geography in a specific Norwegian industrial and geographical context are described. These attempts indicate that the researcher's methodological approach has been transformed from a narrow one relying solely on conventional social science methods to a broader one including participatory action research.     

Systems thinking and critique. I. What is critique?

This paper is the first in a trilogy which intends to discuss the notion of critique within two different contexts: Modern Western Philosophy and Contemporary Systems Thinking. This first paper presents a phenomenological inquiry into the concept of “critique.” The result of the inquiry is a model of the possibilities ofcritique which is used to interpret four “moments” of critique in Modern Western Philosophy.     

Student, Curricular and Public Agency Needs: A Focus on Competency Achievement

This paper presents a framework that addresses a public child welfare agency??s need for a highly trained child welfare workforce with specialized competencies, situating these competencies within the human services educational profession??s accreditation standards, while simultaneously meeting the learning needs of professionals returning to school for additional graduate training. The framework integrates three disparate literatures. The first that frames employees returning to a university setting for additional education and training as a human resources benefit. The second body of literature that addresses the annual review of employee performance via employment assessment systems. And the final body that examines parallel organizational processes related to the development of a product, in our case, a professional with a graduate degree. The framework, developed using a soft system methodology approach, and evaluated by means of an electronic portfolio, integrates these three bodies of literature and allows for the real time curricular and agency assessment of competency achievement. While using a professional graduate training program as an exemplar, implications for broader systemic practice are discussed.