Action research in the plural crisis of the living: understanding, envisioning, practicing, organising eco-social transformation

Abstract

ABSTRACT Finding ourselves in the midst of a plural eco-social crisis, this paper addresses roles and guiding questions for action research understanding, envisioning, practicing, and organising eco-social action, with the aim of renewing our human entanglements with the living ecologies, in which we are embedded. Driven by the aim of democratising eco-social transformations, climate- and biodiversity disasters are approached as symptoms of a plural eco-social crisis. From an eco-feminist position, this crisis concerns notions of mastery and extractivism eroding human and societal capabilities to sustain the inherent regenerative capacities of the living. Grounded in critical utopian action research, the paper addresses four different dimensions in action research for eco-social transformation: i) enabling social learning spaces to make visible the ways we are socially and ecologically related; ii) re-imagining how we want to live and relate in wider ecologies; iii) seeking alternatives to mastery through tangible practices; and iv) enabling new organisational forms for societal reorganisation. Building on concrete cases from urban planning to rural and regenerative practice, this paper describes how these different perspectives can mutually strengthen action research for eco-social transformation.