Developmental Sensemaking for Transformative Action Taking: The Constructive Motion of Emotion

• Published in: International journal of action research Vol. 20; no. 2; pp. 187 - 197
• Main Author: Bradbury, Hilary
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Leverkusen Verlag Barbara Budrich 21.10.2024
• Subjects: Action research; Emotions; Growth models; Psychology; Researchers
• ISSN: 1861-1303; 1861-9916
• DOI: 10.3224/ijar.v20i2.08

The article refreshes the concept of learning from experience, by emphasizing how experience is primarily anchored by emotion not rational thinking alone. It then inquires into the potential value of engaging emotions as a resource that gives vitality to action research. The proposition is that by including disappeared and denied emotions, perhaps especially at this moment when we confront planetary crisis, we may find greater perspective and imagination in co-creating response with stakeholders. Insights from two bodies of literature, action-oriented psychology and constructivist adult development are brought to flesh out the argument. A rich learning chronicle from a large scale, successful action research at the Port of Los Angeles is used to illustrate. The relevance of this chapter for action researchers engaged in territorial development lies in the provocation that more action researchers enrich capacity for helping transformations happen by leveraging the motion of emotions at this time of ecosocial crisis.