First Person Action Research by Judi Marshall

First Person Action Research by Judi Marshall

An introduction to self-reflexive practice, this book a collage of different voices and perspectives in underpinned by the idea of living your life as inquiry

Judi Marshall’s enduring practice of living life as inquiry shines through this excellent volume which is at once a handbook, provocation, storybook, and confidantA vital resource for those wishing to engage in the messiness of self-reflexive practice, Judi’s text provides wise guidance through its difficulties while pointing to its possibilities for self and systems transformation. 

-- Dr Donna Ladkin

This is a jewel of a book. Judi Marshall, not only provides insights into the theory and practice of first person action research she also engages in it herself. She shows how living life as inquiry is a responsibility that challenges us to think critically and act meaningfully in our world. This book is a must, not merely to read, but to internalise.  

-- David Coghlan

First person action research, as Judi articulates it, helps inform better action, better research and more mindful leadership.  The field of action research has been waiting for Judi’s decades long crystallization of first person inquiry practices and First Person Action Research now offers a most welcome and timely read.   Action researchers, who are encouraged to hold high aspirations for positive impact with stakeholders, will find a guide to staying in touch with their aspiration, and support for making it real.  Judi’s work helps to situate inquiry that integrates what she calls "outer and inner arcs of attention," into our everyday "living life as inquiry." First person inquiry is not for its own sake. As social scientists we may also understand that because ostensibly objective studies are increasingly questioned for their partiality, well-wrought first person action research can help clarify and refine our scientific insights. Judi offers examples of useful and occasionally artistic first person inquiry practices, helpfully brought alive with her own stories of living everyday inquiry. We are edified by inquiry practices that enrich all, both practitioners and those touched by the practice, alike. Thank you Judi!

-- Hilary Bradbury

Judi Marshall is a Professor Emerita of Leadership and Learning at Lancaster University Management School, UK, in the Department of Organisation, Work and Technology.   After a few years as a market researcher, Judi did her PhD on managerial job stress at UMIST, working with Cary Cooper. This led to a series of joint articles and books.  In 1978 Judi joined the Organizational Behaviour Group in the School of Management at the University of Bath. There her interests included women in management, organizational culture change, careers, action research and sustainability. The latter a set of issues and urgent challenges she has been integrating into management education, research and her own organizational action since the 1980s.   Whilst at Bath, publications included: Women Managers: Travellers in a Male World (Wiley, 1984); Women Managers Moving On (Routledge, 1995); explorations of the gendering of corporate social responsibility; attention to ‘responsible’ careers (with Svenja Tams); and a sequence of publications on first person action research, including “Living life as inquiry” (Systemic Practice and Action Research, 1999) – an approach that aspires to treat life as an ongoing experiment.   Working with doctoral and Masters students, and supervising their dissertations, has been a key area of Judi’s expertise. At Bath, she was a core member of the Centre for Action Research in Professional Practice (CARPP) and a tutor on the learning community based Postgraduate Programme in Action Research.  She was a co-designer (with Gill Coleman and Peter Reason) and Director of Studies for the action research-based MSc in Responsibility and Business Practice (1997-2010) for ‘mature’, part-time course participants who were seeking to contribute to change in their organizations, professional fields, own lives and society. The co-authored book Leadership for Sustainability: An action research approach (Routledge, 2011) includes 29 stories of seeking to contribute to systemic change from people who had undertaken the Masters.   Judi moved on from Bath and joined Lancaster University in 2008, in the then Department of Management Learning and Leadership. Her work included teaching, research, writing and organizational action about sustainability, and she especially appreciated belonging to a network of people across the University and local community concerned about these issues. She co-developed the MA in Leadership for Sustainability, and tutored on the inquiry-based MA in Management Learning and Leadership.   Judi’s contributions to action research have continued since formal retirement, including the book First Person Action Research: Living life as inquiry (Sage, 2016), and an article co-authored with Margaret Gearty – “Living life as inquiry – a systemic practice for change agents” (Systemic Practice and Action Research, online 2020).

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781412912150
ISBN 10	1412912156
Title	First Person Action Research
Author	Judi Marshall
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	SAGE Publications Inc
Year published	2016-05-30
Number of pages	248
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.