A Seminar on Prospective Theory Building: The Life-centric Art and Collaborative Science of Appreciative Inquiry as World-making

Abstract

This article provides a glimpse into a Ph.D. research course on theory building. The seminar is inspired by a holistic interweaving of Appreciative Inquiry and portraiture research; the method of grounded theory; and the great call of our time for future-forming generative theory. In this article we define the umbrella concept of prospective theory and visualize six core constituents for propelling this kind of theory building, while also speaking to what’s been called ‘AI’s lost minor detail’.