Systemic Practice and Action Research - Festschrift for Morten Levin: Call for papers for a special issue in Systemic Practice and Action Research

Correspondence

Hanne Finnestrand, Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway

Email: hanne.finnestrand@ntnu.no (this opens in a new tab)

Introduction

Systemic Practice and Action Research was launched in 1988 under the name Systems Practice. The aims and scope, in short, were to publish “articles that employ systems ideas for the betterment of people’s lives” (Flood, 2017, p. 209). In the 1990s, the journal’s name was changed to Systemic Practice and Action Research in part because the editorial team recognized that systems thinking and systems practice had matured so that the guiding principles were systemic and shared with action research. In the same period, mini-conferences were arranged between systems thinkers and action researchers with the purpose of exploring the relationship between systemic practice and action research (Flood, 2017). One of them was organized by Morten Levin, and this was pivotal in establishing a deep understanding of the systemic nature of action research and that much of systems practice is better understood in terms of action research.  It is no exaggeration to say that Morten Levin has been influential in the development of Systemic Practice and Action Research.

This is a call for papers for a special issue of Systemic Practice and Action Research to honour Mortens Levin’s lifetime contribution to his research on organizations, with a particular focus on the importance of the interaction between technology and organization, and his contribution to action research.

Morten was born 11.07.1946, and passed on 09.04.2023. He originally trained as a mechanical engineer and earned a Master's in Operations Research and Economics. He then achieved a mag. art. in sociology in 1981. Throughout his career, Morten was employed in various positions at the Norwegian Institute of Technology, which later became the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), in addition to undertaking applied research at The Royal Norwegian Defence Research Establishment and at The Foundation for Industrial and Technical Research at the Norwegian Institute of Technology (SINTEF). At SINTEF, he was associated with a number of departments where, over the years, he became a Scientific Researcher, Research Director and Scientific Adviser. In 1992 he became a full professor at the Norwegian Institute of Technology. He also maintained a close relationship with researchers at Cornell University in the United States of America following several research visits there.

As a researcher and academic, Morten Levin was active in the social debate beyond his own research field, and used his expertise and abilities to challenge politicians and government officials on topics that were close to his heart. Morten's involvement was often linked to injustice and being a voice for the disadvantaged, which was also reflected in his research. He was, for example, particularly engaged in human rights issues, and the situation in the Palatines in particular.

This commitment on a personal level is worth a Festschrift in itself. However, despite the fact that Morten’s academic work and his engagement in the social debate are somewhat intertwined, we will not be accepting papers focusing solely on Morten as an individual. In contrast, we want the papers to be significant contributions to the literature in their own right. Contributors might want to:

• Write a paper describing an application of some of Morten Levin's ideas (with the strengths and weaknesses of them highlighted).

• Take Morten's thinking further.

• Argue against Morten's position on something.

Strong themes in all of Morten Levin’s work over the years has been researching the change in organizations, with a particular focus on the interaction between technology and organization. He also contributed greatly to the development of action research's epistemological and methodological foundations.

The only real rule, other than making sure your paper makes a novel contribution to the literature and is scholarly, is that contributions must relate to Morten Levin's work in some way: for example, if you produce a paper on action research's epistemological foundations, which is something that Morten wrote several articles and book chapter on, it must position itself in relation to his contribution (as well as those of others). We welcome papers on the following topics, but also other contributions, as long as they relate to Morten Levin's work:

• The interaction between technology and organization and/or sociotechnical systems in the workplace
• Trade union’s participation in organizational change
• Broad participation and democracy at work 
• Evaluation and trailing research
•  Local community development and/or rural economic development
• Knowledge- and/or technology transfer in organizational development methodological and epistemological approach to action research 
• Co-generative learning and/or organizational innovation and development through a participative process action research and critical systems thinking
• Action research as rigorous research
• The relationships between the university and society and the transformation of teaching institutions
• Cross-boundary learning systems and/or cross-disciplinary work
• Education of action researchers
• Participative transformation and learning in teams

Timetable:

Here is our timetable for the Festschrift, and details of how to make a submission:

1. Abstracts received (these will be reviewed by the editors to determine their suitability for the special issue): 1 February 2024.

2. Full papers received: 1 June 2024.

3. Refereeing of papers and authors responding to referees, culminating in a final delivery date for the festschrift: 20 November 2024. Systemic Practice and Action Research follows a single-blind reviewing procedure. The peer review process for the articles in this special issue is the same as the peer review process of the journal in general. The only difference is that authors who make a submission to the special issue must be prepared to review other contributions to the special issue.

Abstracts for research papers of no more than 500 words should be submitted to Hanne Finnestrand, Editor-in-Chief of Systemic Practice and Action Research, at hanne.finnestrand@ntnu.no (this opens in a new tab) by 1 February 2024. Any questions regarding the special issue and/or how to approach your paper should also be sent to the same email address.

References

Flood, R. L. (2017). Thirty Years of Systemic Practice and Action Research. Systemic Practice and Action Research, 30, 209–211. doi:10.1007/s11213-017-9411-1