From October 12-14, the IJAR 2022 symposium, titled “Action Research on the Edge”, took place in a hybrid format in Istanbul organised by the ARAMA Chair in Action Research at Sabancı University. We are very pleased that Professor Dr Oğuz Babüroğlu from Sabancı University, and member of the editorial committee of our journal IJAR – International Journal of Action Research, has agreed to answer five questions on this occasion.
What is action research and why is it important, especially in today’s times?
In our understanding and approach action research is collective/collaborative thinking, collective/collaborative knowledge production and collective/collaborative action towards a more desirable future through a self governing process that adheres to democratic principles and ethics.
Action research is much more important today on our planet than it has ever been since it was formulated roughly 80 years ago simply because the world is at the edge of a meta-transformation. Meta transformation first and foremost is a wholistic consideration of the many levels and types of transformations. Just as a reminder let us consider, the recent pandemic and the disruption it caused at many different spheres of live, the coming disruption of the climate change and the compelling new practices that have to emerge or be designed for managing the green deal and meeting the sustainable development goals, the current global stagflation and accompanying potential reversal of the waves of globalization, increasing polarization between the haves and the don’t haves as well as authoritarianism and democratization within the socio-political fabric of the society, the great resignation and the impact of the generation Z on work places, the increasing explosion of new and increasing converging digital technologies that will require very different socio-technical designs of living and of work places! This list doesn’t even touch upon the necessary transformations within what used to be termed the “business as usual or core business” which is about to go to pieces resulting from inability to manage the silos and the hierarchical command and control structures. And the impending personal transformation for a different mindset and heartfullness!
So here are the questions that any research endavour needs to address: Can any institution or organization afford not to manage these transformations? Do we have sufficient accumulation of know how to weather these transformations all at the same time?
The one approach that proves to be hopeful and useful for managing meta transformation is action research. It focuses on new knowledge generation and paving the medium for generative ways of living and working. And its emphasis on doing it together in order to unleash amazing new energies and minds to work in parallel so that the message for managing meta transformations is to collectively design the “medium” as Marshall McLuhan said regarding communication many decades ago.
How do you assess the development of current international action research and how can IJAR help to promote it?
There are some well received assumptions in the change management world. Change is always experienced and is faster on the “edges” where there is much instability and creativity at the same time. Those who have embedded interests in the current world order can not be expected to lead the meta transformation. There is more chaos and more chances for a new order to emerge from the periphery. If these assumptions have some credibility than action research in the international field is likely to produce new avenues much more than the orthodoxies associated with conventional ways of doing action research. Where there is more conditions of beyond the steady state there will be more experience and new practices with new ways of managing transformation within contexts ridden by paradox, duality, adaptation and stalemates.These practices may find their way into the center stage through IJAR.
Are there any differences between global and Turkish action research?
Fortunately there is no single action research variety that is dominant in the world at large. Different ways of practicing action research is the most important richness of this way of doing research and doing action at the same time. Therefore action research in Turkey can move toward a particular modality in time. As for now we may identify a set of common characteristics:
- articulation of objectives: the democratization of organizational life and of (Turkish) society through growing micro-democracies at all levels
- partnership and participation: avid pursuit of inclusiveness, zero hierarchy and turning the locus of control to participants through widespread deployment of participative methodologies
- contribution to action research theory/practice: contribution to new concepts such as common ground “ortak akıl”, in the Turkish milieu which has more acceptance and diffusion among diverse stakeholders, generating new methodologies (polling conference), new processes (bundling of search-decision-commitment conferences)
- methods and process use of conferences and workshops; Emery-Trist paradigm and the socio-technical approach
- actionability: significant outcomes such as several greenfield site universities, new agreements at the regional level, new national strategies, new products as well as building accountability to the client system for traceable results
- reflexivity: iterative production of action knowledge, work on the knowledge in between methodologies, and follow up with interpretation after the engagement and intervention.
- significance and ambition: enabling dialogue at the edges where people think not to be possible, collaborative university designs to be taken as benchmark by others, national and corporate level strategies from ground up
Please tell us about Sabancı University’s action research initiative. How did it come about and how has it evolved over time?
Sabancı University started as an action research process triggered by a search conference held in 1995 and since held a search conference as a core part of its continuing intention to co-design the future with a participative methodology every five years. Sabancı University to this day have been rated in top 3 for entrepreneurial and innovative university among all universities (200+) in Turkey.
Sabancı earned this stature in Turkey and overseas for continuously innovating on all mission areas; education research and societal impact. In 2018 the board of trustees established a chair for action research entitled ARAMA (“Search” in English) that is the most active agency dedicated to creation of better futures within a participative paradigm. I was offered to hold the chair and was asked to make sure that there are many more followers on my footstep. The action research initiative together with Dr Pınar Akpınar – the program director – produced a Phd program and a masters program freshly started in 2022 in action research and transformation.
What do you expect and hope for from the IJAR2022 symposium in Istanbul?
IJAR2022 with a theme called “Action Research on the Edge” with 27 paper presentations, two roundtables and a search conference between October 12-14 is a well rounded IJAR sponsored symposium. Action research and social inclusion, edges of action research, extending action research, action research in territorial development and the urban edge, beginning, continuing and ending action research, knowledge democracies are some of the subtitles. The search conference will be held on the issue of “how to strike a green deal in corporations” is going to be attended by large corporations and is expected to create a community of practioners consistent with the AR promise of generating new intitiatives from ongoing ones namely the IJAR2022 symposium. This years symposium therefore is going to be different in the sense that it will be the start of other action research initiatives.
It will be the first time that action research in Turkey will be on stage with projects and engagements. Projects in developing the future of Istanbul as a city, in launching a movement to create a self managing ecosystem to develop and to surface the gastronomy of the Turkish Aegean coast, in searching for collaboration with the EU to cooperate in North Africa, in creating an innovative pre-incubator in the start up ecosystem and in bringing the emotional and the rational in action research interventions through music, gender activism and teacher development are some examples of current intiatives of action research in Turkey.
Expectations for proposing a special issue perhaps on the theme of the conference “Action Research on the Edge” for IJAR may well be a possiblity.
Short vita
Prof. Dr. Oğuz Babüroğlu completed his undergraduate degree in applied engineering sciences and operations research in Sussex University. Following his graduation, he went to Lancaster University for postgraduate education in operations research. He received his PhD in 1987 at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in social systems sciences. As a lecturer, he served in seven different universities and research institutions in different countries of the world. Due to his contributions in the field of action research he was awarded the ARAMA chair. Currently, he is the head of action research chair. Since the 1980s, he has conducted many participatory methodologies on national and international level. Babüroğlu has implemented more than 100 long-term consulting projects and over 1500 participatory action research methodologies. His numerous workshops paved the way for Turkey to meet with action research and made search conference a category name for all conferencing. Babüroğlu is specialized in action research, participatory methods, next-generation universities, innovative institution generation, business model design, planning for future strategies, conflict resolution and family business governance. Apart from his book with Merrelyn Emery entitled Educational Futures, his articles are also published in various international journals. He is a member of the advisory or editorial boards of Action Research Journal, International Journal of Action Research, Journal of Systems and Behavioral Science, and Journal of Vocational Education. He received the EXXON Award for Innovation in Education in 1980 by American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business. He was granted the NATO PhD Scholarship 1978-1982. He also received the OPOS Scholarship to study in a boarding high school in the UK, a public speaking award and The Best Article Prize given by the Society for General Systems Research (now the International Society for the Systems Sciences).
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Until October 23, 2022, you can get the printed book and the e-book of our title Action Research in Organizations with a 25% discount via our webshop!
2020 • 328 pp. • Pb. • print:
ISBN 978-3-8474-2445-1 • eISBN 978-3-8474-1663-0
Header image / portrait photo: Oğuz Babüroğlu
