Organic growth: Balancing lifegiving learning processes in appreciative inquiry communities

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) was conceived as a theory-building approach and at the same time a positive change method in organizational development. Since the 1980’s, the approach has spread into several other arenas, and many people have learned to focus on “what gives life to a living system when it is most alive”(Cooperrider, Whitney & Stavros, 2001, p. 3). But what about the people who profoundly apply the principles of appreciative inquiry in their personal and professional lives? What is important for appreciative inquiry practitioners’ own development processes?
It has been said that human beings are living longer but suffer more, with stress, anxiety and depression widespread as diagnoses in today’s Western cultures. The aim of this thesis is to discover what gives life to AI practitioners, with the purpose of learning from them to be inspired regarding greater wellbeing