Sociocybernetics and action research: Analysis and intervention in complex social problems

Abstract

Participatory action research (PAR) has been used as a methodology for social intervention that combines research enquiry and action in the analysis of and intervention in complex social problems. However, a better systematization of complex social research processes is required to enable reflexivity at a participatory level and second-order observation of the full research system constructed. This article proposes a PAR model using conceptual and methodological elements of sociocybernetics, which is the application of first- and second-order cybernetics and general systems theory to social sciences. The authors see this model as able to reinforce the systematization of PAR, enabling a second-order reflexivity and feedback process through information analysis and communication strategies. The first part of the article explains how sociocybernetics concepts can contribute to this sociological methodology and discusses points of similarity between the two approaches and the basis of the proposed model. The second part addresses an empirical case of PAR developed in the context of the High Atlas in Morocco using the proposed model. By reinforcing a systems perspective, internal and external elements of the research system can be defined better to understand its relevance to optimal fulfilment of the research purpose. The value that sociocybernetics adds may be the comprehension of processes of change through the assimilation, accommodation and adaptation of the components and limits of the system, the feedback process and other interactions within the system and its environment, in order to analyse how social changes occur in complex settings.