Systemic action research, turbulence and emergence

Purpose - In this chapter the author draws on a number of his personal experiences of turbulence in the world about him, to illustrate how he came to embrace principles and practices of systemic action research/systemic development in his efforts to more successfully deal with the complex uncertainties and chaotic disorder of surroundings in which he has found himself. Design - The nature of systemic action research is presented along with a description of how that was expressed as praxis during a long-term initiative in the transformation of an educational institution in Australia that reflected the response of a group of academics to severe turbulence in the world about them. The characteristics of the 'system idea' that were fundamental to this work are discussed, and their significance to turbulence as an emergent property are explored. Findings - These conceptualizations are woven into a somewhat autoethnographic narrative of personal transformation in the face of extreme turbulence. In the manner entirely consistent with the key systems concepts of 'emergence' and diversity, the story itself illustrates the various motivations for, and a continuing momentum of, this fusion of systems concepts and principles with action researching practices. Challenges presented by environmental turbulence have been met with deliberate attention to and appreciation of the dialectic relationship between shared experiences in the 'concrete world' and the collective generation of 'abstract knowledge'. Value - It is the knowledge that has 'emerged' in this manner that has then been used to inform responsible sustainable actions for development.