Abstract
This paper explores issues arising from the growing experience in the practice of just one of the traditions of multimethodology, namely that associated with a set of theoretical principles labeled “pragmatic pluralism,” and a methodological framework which is being developed to put these into action, namely, PANDA (participatory appraisal of needs and the development of action). The paper begins with a short historical introduction to the tradition of multimethodology under consideration; Section 2 then briefly describes some of the main features and principles involved in the PANDA framework. We then present three short case studies to illustrate different features of PANDA in action. The concluding section reflects on the issues that arise from the use of PANDA and discusses our future agenda for its development.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Checkland, P. B., and Scholes, J. (1990). Soft Systems Methodology in Action, Wiley, Chichester.
de Geus, A. (1988). Planning as learning. Harvard Bus. Rev. March–April, 70–74.
Friend, J. and Hickling, A. (1987). Planning Under Pressure, Pergamon, London.
MacCracken, J., Pretty, J., and Conway, G. (1988). An Introduction to RRA for Agricultural Development, IIED, London.
Rosenhead, J., and White, L. (1996). Nuclear fusion: Some linked case-studies. J. Operat. Res. Soc. 47(4), 479–489.
Taket, A. R. (1987). Health outcome measures and the assessment of effectiveness. Seminar presented at the Brookdale Institute of Gerontology and Adult Human Development, Israel (mimeo).
Taket, A. R. (1988). Working together on health issues. Paper prepared for international working group on Intersectoral Action: Practical Argumentation and Mechanisms, Utrecht, The Netherlands, Organized by the World Health Organization and the Ministry for Welfare, Health and Cultural Affairs, The Netherlands (mimeo).
Taket, A. R. (1989). Exploring equity and access in health service provision. Paper presented at the Conference of Institute of British Geographers, Coventry (mimeo).
Taket, A. R. (1990). Evaluating novel forms of service provision: advice on child protection work. Paper presented at the Conference of Operational Research Society, Bangor (mimeo).
Taket, A. R. (1991). Undercover agency?—Ethics, responsibility and community OR. Paper presented at the Conference of Operational Research Society, Exeter (mimeo).
Taket, A. R. (1992). Evaluating community based health promotion. Paper presented at the Conference of Operational Research Society, Birmingham (mimeo).
Taket, A. R. (1993). Mixing and matching: OR and innovatory health promotion projects. OR Insight 6(4), 18–23.
Taket, A. R. (1994). Undercover agency?—Ethics, responsibility and the practice of OR. J. Operat. Res. Soc. 45(2), 123–132.
Taket, A. R., and White, L. A. (1993). After OR: An agenda for postmodernism and poststructuralism in OR. J. Operat. Res. Soc. 44(9), 867–881.
Taket, A. R., and White, L. A. (1995a). Power in multi-organisational work. Paper presented at Second International Workshop on multiorganisational partnerships, Working Together Across Organisational Boundaries, Strathclyde, June 1995 (mimeo).
Taket, A. R., and White, L. A. (1995b). Visible responsibility: A guide for critical action. In Proceedings of the 39th Annual Meeting of the ISSS: Systems Thinking, Government Policy and Decision Making, Amsterdam, July, pp. 1054–1061.
Taket, A. R., and White, L. A. (1996a) Pragmatic pluralism—An explication. Syst. Practice 9, 571–186.
Taket, A. R., and White, L. A. (1996b). Creating common cause. John Smith Memorial Colloquium, University of Central Queensland, Oct.
Taket, A. R., and White, L. A. (1997a). Wanted: dead OR alive—Ways of using problem-structuring methods in community OR. Int. Trans. Operat. Res. 4(2), 99–108.
Taket, A. R., and White, L. A. (1997b). Research for health service effectiveness: Problems and opportunities for multi-agency collaboration. Paper presented at the Fourth International Conference on Multi-organisational Partnerships and Co-operative Strategy, Oxford, 8–10 July.
White, L. A. (1988). OR for development: Experiences in Africa. Paper presented at the Young OR Conference, Warwick.
White, L. A. (1989). Community OR with nucleus housing association. Paper presented at the Operational Research Society Conference, Southampton.
White, L. A. (1990). Some experiences of community OR. Paper presented at the Young OR Conference, Warwick.
White, L. A. (1991). Alternative development and operational research: Experience in Belize. Paper presented at the Operational Research Society Conference, Exeter.
White, L. A. (1993). Development options for a rural community in Belize. Paper presented at the IFORS Conference, Lisbon.
White, L. A. (1994a). Development options for a rural community in Belize—Alternative development and operational research. Int. Trans. Operat. Res. 1(4) 453–462.
White, L. A. (1994b). Enabling the Migrant Resource Centre to make their own decisions. In Ritchie, C., Taket, A. R., and Bryant, J. (eds.), Community Works, Pavic, Sheffield.
White, L. A. (1994c). PANDA Field Manual, Help for Progress, Belize
White, L. A., and Rosenhead, J. (1994). Conflict resolution in Nucleus. In Ritchie, C., Taket, A. R., and Bryant, J. (eds.), Community Works, Pavic, Sheffield.
White, L. A., and Taket, A. R. (1993). Community OR—Doing what feels good. OR Insight 6(2), 20–23.
White, L. A., and Taket, A. R. (1994a). Doing community OR with multicultural groups. OMEGA 22(6), 579–588.
White, L. A., and Taket, A. R. (1994b). Death of the expert. J. Operat. Res. Soc. 45, 733–748.
White, L. A., and Taket, A. R. (1995a). Paradigm lost? Paper presented at Second International Workshop on multiorganisational partnerships, Working Together Across Organisational Boundaries, Strathclyde, June (mimeo).
White, L. A., and Taket, A. R. (1995b). Changing faces: An investigation of guises for intervention. In Proceedings of the 39th Annual Meeting of the ISSS: Systems Thinking, Government Policy and Decision Making, Amsterdam, July, pp. 1088–1097.
White, L. A., and Taket, A. R. (1996). Evaluating innovative NGO health projects and helping them influence health policy. In Proceedings of Sixth International Conference on Systems Science in Health Care, Barcelona, Sept.
White, L. A., and Taket, A. R. (1997). A report on an action research project to strengthen the research base in community and primary care. In Stowell, F. A., et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the 6th International Conference of UKSS: Systems for Sustainability: People, Organisations and Environments, Milton Keynes, July, Plenum, New York, pp. 313–318.
White, L. A., and Taket, A. R. (1998). Beyond appraisal: Participatory appraisal of needs and the development of action (PANDA). OMEGA 25(5), 523–535.
White, L. A., Taket, A. R., and Gibbons, M. (1996). Working with Groups: Field Work Manual, Version 1.0, Oct. Strengthening the Research Base in Community and Primary Care Resource Materials No. 1, South Bank University, London, mimeo.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Taket, A., White, L. Experience in the Practice of One Tradition of Multimethodology. Systemic Practice and Action Research 11, 153–168 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022977301782
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022977301782