Pragmatic pluralism—An explication

The focus with which the paper is concerned is the process or task of intervention and, more specifically, the exploration of three (overlapping and interacting) questions pertinent to those who would intervene:

What is to be done?

How shall we decide what to do?

What can guide our actions?

In terms of what we will describe as pragmatic pluralism (our response to these questions), we intend this to be read in several different ways and on several different levels. Illustrating the discussion with examples from a number of different case studies, we will talk about pluralism in each of the following features:

in the use of specific methods/techniques

in the role(s) of the interventionists

in the modes of representation employed

in the use of different rationalities

in the ‘nature’ of the client

     

Experience in the Practice of One Tradition of Multimethodology

This paper explores issues arising from the growing experience in the practice of just one of the traditions of multimethodology, namely that associated with a set of theoretical principles labeled pragmatic pluralism, and a methodological framework which is being developed to put these into action, namely, PANDA (participatory appraisal of needs and the development of action). The paper begins with a short historical introduction to the tradition of multimethodology under consideration; Section 2 then briefly describes some of the main features and principles involved in the PANDA framework. We then present three short case studies to illustrate different features of PANDA in action. The concluding section reflects on the issues that arise from the use of PANDA and discusses our future agenda for its development.     

Book Reviews

Systemic Practice and Action Research -