The aim of this chapter is to give a feel for the way in which real action research projects can emerge and evolve across a wide social and organisational terrain. Because of the depth and breadth of each of these projects, the examples focus mostly on design. It would be impossible to do justice to the complex issues that each explored, although I do look at some of the detail of the Bristol Children's Initiatives (BCI) project in Chapter Six. In this chapter, I explore the two forms of systemic action research that I typified earlier: large system action research which characterises a number of SOLAR projects, and networked systemic inquiry which describes the shape of many of the PhDs that Susan and I have supervised.

Large system action research

Four systemic action research projects are highlighted here. First, the Melbourne inquiry into psychiatric care facilitated by Yoland Wadsworth. Second, a project that worked across Early Years initiatives in Bristol. Third, a national programme evaluation of a capacity building initiative involving 142 programmes across Wales, and finally, a whole organisation inquiry into vulnerability with the British Red Cross.

The four large systemic action research projects outlined here have been shaped quite differently. They have many aspects in common, but each is defined by a particular strength. The Melbourne project is particularly characterised by its refusal to be diverted away from users as its driving force, and the way in which its insights gradually had greater and greater systemic impact. The Bristol project was unusual in its complexity and the extent of its multiple strands. The Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) project was notable for the extent to which the action research was structurally embedded at a strategic level, so that insights from the ground could lead within weeks to major strategic decisions being taken. The British Red Cross project illustrates the way in which the involvement of hundreds of stakeholders (mostly staff), in multiple large events, enabled learning and innovation to travel directly through the organisation. We might aspire to a project that held the strengths of all of these, but projects like the phenomena they are engaging with are context specific and can evolve in unpredictable ways. It is perhaps better to hold them up as examples of what is possible if the right spaces and moments open up.