Customer Reviews

Mindful Inquiry in Social Research

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Ph.D. candidate, Human Development, Fielding Institute, Santa Barbara, CA, March 18, 1999.

Mindful Inquiry in Social Research is a scholarly and poetic volume on how to bring mindfulness into one's work and life. Even though I have read other research texts, "I didn't know what I didn't know." However, with Valerie Bentz and Jeremy Shapiro's extraordinary and unique approach, I am for the first time, on my way to developing the research capability that I sought from my doctoral studies. Like reading a suspense novel where time seems to melt away, I lost my sense of time while immersed in the beauty and clarity of Mindful Inquiry. Bentz and Shapiro, literally come alive through their personal writing styles. The text is all at once philosophical, personal, and theoretical. It is not a minor accomplishment for a research text to read poetically. If you have scholarly interests that are directed at the discovery of the cause and the meaning of things, this book may well be the only guide (certainly a necessary one) you will need for your quest. And should you really want to kick start your own research, begin by reading the inspirational magic formulae in their concluding chapter.

This book puts the "so what" back into research texts! It is a wonderful, thoughtful, realistic and provocative description of how research is not only a technique but an approach to life. I used many of the excellent suggestions to explore my own thoughts and to develop new insights into research methodologies and philosophies. I can't remember the last scholarly book I sat down and read for an entire weekend cover to cover!

I can only congradulate Dr. Valerie Malhotra and her co-author for this original work which brings back the role of the researcher as a theory builder rather then just a data collector. Most importantly, the reference includes other world-views which extends beyond the Western civilization. It may be another contribution if the book inludes other civilizations as well.

Mindful Inquiry is one book that adds quality knowledge to any personal library. It is full of annotated information from the classical to modern authors. Mindful Inquiry in Social Research

This book is a must for all "inquiring minds." That is, while the authors announce it as a book for researchers, it is really for anyone whose work entails creating understanding or knowledge. Leaders and organizational consultants must be constantly building on and changing their mental models of the organizational world and its inhabitants. Psychotherapists must do the same for their clients' worlds. Looking at this challenge through the combination of phenomenology, hermeneutics, critical theory, and Buddhism will deepen and enrich one's sense of meaning in the work of leading, consulting, and therapy. I will never look at a client's situation quite the same way again! So, while this is an excellent text for researchers, I would highly recommend it to all those who must understand human systems deeply.