How to do action research for transformations at a time of eco-social crisis, by Hilary S. Bradbury. Elgar, 2022. Four characters in search of a book review

What are the crucial ingredients missing in our search for transformative – structural, cultural, political-economic – changes to entrenched systems of oppression right now? Why do so many smart, informed, data-driven efforts fail? This book says what’s missing is ART: Action Research for Transformation, a contemporary expression of action research. The book offers surprising, counter-intuitive, and most importantly, experienced-based insights on both what ART is, and how to do it. It reveals pathways to disrupt the academic détentes regarding quantitative versus quantitative, objective versus subjective, macro versus micro, and asks what is knowledge and what is it for. The book offers practical approaches, tools, and case studies, while featuring personal narratives from a wide range of active ARTists about their successes, challenges, doubts, and perhaps most importantly, the joy and value they experience performing ART. Its preponderant thesis is this: the problems of eco-social crisis aren’t “out there” so much as within, between and among each one of us, and the types of relationships we create with others. The book is therefore of value to educators and change leaders perhaps especially within our universities’ professional schools.