Ideas and practices

This chapter offers key ideas and resources which have informed the MSc in Responsibility and Business Practice and have been introduced to the course participants. Action research was at the heart of the MSc both in theory and in practice. Worldview is the fundamental basis of perceiving, thinking, valuing and acting. The Western worldview can be seen as being formed 300–400 years ago in the period we know as the Enlightenment. The notion of 'tempered radicalism', depict the inside-outsider promoting change, quite early in the MSc programme. An exploration of 'relational practice' underpinned much of the work of the MSc: it was a strong offering, as an expression of the view of a participatory world, fundamentally based on relationship. Many of the participants on the MSc programme find themselves relatively isolated in their organisations and communities, believing that radical and far-reaching changes in human behaviour are required if we are to reach a just and sustainable society.