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Organic Inquiry Organic Inquiry is based on feminist principles, and is a research method rooted in respect for the feminine, the earth and the involvement of those that are part of the study. It takes into account the notion that as human beings doing research, try as we may to be completely objective, it is impossible. It therefore includes the researcher’s story as an essential part of the research itself, instead of focusing on just the stories of the participants. It also invites Spirit in, as part of the study, and is considered to be partially responsible for the transformation. The researcher, the participants, and the readers of the study are all part of the transformative change that this approach hopes to bring. Organic Inquiry uses the analogy of a plant growing to explain how its process unfolds. Each stage of growth represents a characteristic of the approach: sacred, personal, chthonic, related, and transformative. According to one of the major collaborators in creating Organic Inquiry, Jennifer Clements (2002), each stage is inclusive of its opposite, being the profane, objective, transcendent, intellectual, and unchanging. Organic Inquiry starts with the sacred, the soil being prepared. The particpants as well as the researcher must create a space to allow anything to happen: we must be open to possibility, and let go of judgments, assumptions, resentment, prejudice, and any feelings of competition. The researcher’s own experience is what starts the process, like a seed being planted. The topic is typically one of personal relevance to the researcher, being an “occasion for psycho-spiritual growth” (Clements, 2002). To bring one’s own experience to the research adds much passion and richness to it. Being the starting point, the researcher’s perspective creates a container for the study. The roots start to emerge next, representing the chthonic stage of growth. This includes what happens on the subconscious, including spiritual levels such as dreams, synchronicities, and what creatively can come out of the researcher and/or the participants during the course of the study. The growing of the tree is the related stage, in which the trunk of the research branches out in the the form of the stories of the participants. The individual stories and group experience is to increase the probability of transformation by being designed as liminal experiences. This furthers the potential for the relationship with Spirit, as well as the connection to the larger culture (p.22). Harvesting the fruit is the final stage, representing the transformative element in the study. “The fruit of the organic tree is the multiple copies of a finished study” (p.22), meaning that the transformation takes place on numerous levels. It happens consciously and unconsciously for the researcher, participants, and the readers of the study. Like the fruit of the tree, some of it is harvested, and some of it falls to the ground to fertilize new growth. The impact of the study depends upon the oppenness of the participants and readers; how much they allow in, how involved they become, and how willing they are to let the transformation take place. References Clements, J. (2002). Organic Inquiry: Research in partnership with spirit. Draft manuscript, April 24, 2002. Additional Links
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