Lin-Qing Xia
Department of Psychology, Fu Jen Catholic University
Nai-Fei Ding
English Department, National Central University
This thesis is comprised of two parts: The first part reviews the historical context in which the researchers have conducted action research of social change approaches in Taiwan. Action research rooted in locality, on one hand, created a paradigm shift toward Euro-American group dynamic theory, family therapy, and action science. On the other hand, research produced practical knowledge that efficiently facilitated the social movement community in Taiwan after the lifting of martial law. Participants of social movements have since adopted a new lifestyle that coincides with more prosperous communities. “Social movements” thereby unleashed an “activating force” that changed the participants’ social lives. The second part of this study observes and analyzes Hsia’s action research approach to family, that is, Hsia’s notion of “tiny room, starry sky.” This approach takes each individual family as a target of field study. While each participant exchanges his/her family story, mutual learning occurs. This part of the study posits that by opening up to issues of class, gender and violence in the family, a single family story can “decompress” the constellation of social lives. In this sense, “decompressing” refers to the co-learning process in which participants share their family stories; sharing unravels family relations threaded with multiple layers of social systems and allows suppressed and silenced emotions to be released and expressed. Finally, the collaboration of the two authors in writing allows for a discussion in documenting the formation and production of local knowledge.
Keywords: action research, tiny room, starry sky, decompressing, action field of social relations