Appreciative Inquiry: Research for Change is the first book
dedicated to exploring appreciative inquiry (AI) as an approach to
change-focused research. More than ever, students and researchers
seek to do more than report on what they see following a research
study or project, but rather engage the research environment
(participants, stakeholders) to promote change. In other words,
their studies are as much research-based as they are meant to
initiate or sustain social or organizational change. Very often,
the nature of this dual purpose - research and change - requires
the researcher to use nontraditional approaches that bridge the
theory-practice gap. In this book, author Jan Reed draws on the
work of David Cooperrider and other pioneers in the area of AI to
bridge the current gap between consulting activity and academic
research in AI. The book begins with real-world, international
insights and experiences of AI as a research methodology and offers
the history and principles of AI. Next, it provides ways of linking
and differentiating these activities and exploring the range of
ways to engage AI in change-focused research and practice - from
research question and research design through data collection, data
analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of findings. And
perhaps most importantly, the book places AI in the context of
other research paradigms and approaches, addressing positivist
versus naturalistic stances, social constructionist concepts, and
related methods and methodologies such as action research, PAR,
ethnography, case studies, and narrative inquiry. This book is
appropriate for use in graduate-level methods courses devoted to
appreciative inquiry, change- or community-based research,
organizational development and change, and related topics across
the social sciences, education, and management. It will also prove
invaluable to researchers and professionals who are interested in
using AI but need to know how to frame this approach within the
greater context of traditional research. Key Features:
Comprehensive introduction to Appreciative Inquiry (AI) and the
range of debates that it can generate for a researcher or
professional used to employing otherwise traditional research
models International examples from recent published and unpublished
projects in which AI was used, with an emphasis on those that
shaped policy, planning, and future practices Discussion and
guidance on how to make the connections between AI and various
research paradigms and approaches to research, including positivist
versus naturalistic research, social constructionist concepts,
action research PAR, ethnography, narrative inquiry, and case
studies An assessment of the strengths and limitations of AI in
research environments Practical guidance and ideas for generating
different research questions, managing, organizing, and analyzing
data, and communicating and disseminating the final results
Individual and group exercises that draw on organizational
development techniques as a way to bring AI concepts to life
through practice.
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