Action Research, Critical Systems Heruistics and Social Planning, or: The Art of Promoting Improvement. Introduction. Action Research as I understand it is closely connected to processes of social planning. Sometimes it is a part of a planning process, sometimes it has to confront the consequences of planning efforts that did not sufficiently consider the needs of those affected. In the second case, planning is often the problem rather than the solution; it imposes solutions upon people that are not their solutions, as they had no voice in their making. This technocratic kind of planning is common. In an age dominated by one singular mode of knowledge production, that of institutionalised science, this hardly comes as a surprise. Ours is an age of the experts – and of those who can afford to pay them. What can we offer against this monopoly of knowledge and power from which ordinary people in all societies are excluded? A shared interest in this question, I think, is the common core of Action Research – particularly its strand known as Participatory Action Research – and of the strand of critical systems thinking to which this Primer is dedicated, 'Critical Systems Heuristics' (CSH). etc...
