A Trusting Constructivist Approach to Systemic Inquiry: Exploring Accountability

Abstract

This paper offers an outline of, and justification for, what I call a ‘trusting constructivist’ approach to systemic inquiry. I work with the constructivist view that, as Banathy puts it: ‘what we know about the world becomes projected onto the world’. That is, our theoretical constructions and ways of thinking in relation to the world cannot be considered separately from the impacts that they might have on the unfolding of possibilities. Recognizing our involvement in the development of systems means that we can reconsider—with others—the status of our own constructions as potentially generating self-fulfilling effects. A trusting constructivist view suggests that people cannot desist from offering their own constructions (that embody particular concerns) in processes of inquiry (professional or otherwise). But they need to recognize the choices that they are making as they create constructions, so that they can account for these in relation to alternatives in social discourse, in an endeavor to earn others’ trust.