Participation in Human Inquiry

This book explores research as a collaborative process - researching with and for people, rather than on people. In particular, it addresses the central questions: What is the nature of participation? How can participative relationships and processes be established and sustained in human inquiry?

In the first part, Peter Reason outlines a theoretical foundation for understanding participation and undertaking participative research. He discusses the emergence of a world-view that is holistic, pluralistic and egalitarian and sees human beings as co-creating their realities through participation. He also stresses the importance of discovering ways of living in more collaborative relationships with each other and with the wider ecology, with participative approaches to inquiry being one part of this quest. The second section presents examples of participative research in action. The contributors give accounts of their processes of research - the aims of the inquiries, the nature of the collaborations that took place, and the particular issues and learning involved.

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.