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Presents a conceptual framework for process management of groups involved in action learning and action research. Discusses propositional, practical and experiential learning; and the concept of meta‐learning (learning to learn) in relation to the “learning organisation”. Presents a model of process management that concerns people and process, with implications for research in industry, government and higher education.

The Toxicology Information Working Party (TIWP) was set up following a joint meeting of the Association of Information Officers in the Pharmaceutical Industry (AIOPI) and the UK Online User Group (UKOLUG), held at Pfizer Central Research, Sandwich, in early 1979, to discuss problems of chemical toxicology searching. A strong feeling emerged from this meeting that some co‐operative action among users to improve information provision in this area was both possible and highly desirable. The TIWP was set up, under the auspices of AIOPI and UKOLUG, to investigate this possibility, and to initiate suitable projects. We review here the activities of TIWP during its first six months of existance.

The metaphor which is central to all of the activities at the Centre for Systemic Development at the University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, is that of the critical learning system (CLS), a construct developed as the framework for the systemic education of students in the School of Agriculture and Rural Development at Hawkesbury. CLSs are construed as coherent groups of individuals who are co‐operating together, in learning how to learn collectively to deal with complex matters which are relevant to their own sustainable development as organizations (or more typically, organizational units). The action researching processes common to the centre’s research and consultancy activities, its postgraduate curricula, and its own management practices, are all grounded in experiential learning principles and practices as informed by systems theories and philosophies. The research/consultancy staff and the postgraduate students work together in collaboration with “real‐world” clients who are committed to the sustainable development of their own organizations and/or communities, while bringing a CLS perspective to their programmes and projects. From this CLS perspective, the crucial competences for all those concerned with the sustainable development of organizations, are to understand, create and use CLSs as their vehicles for informed change about, and in, a complex world. Addresses the logic, concepts and methods of the CLS approach, as a contribution to debates about the utility of the learning organization approach to development.

This paper is an edited version of an interview that presents information and insight into the background of ALARPM (action learning, action research and process management) not only as a field but also as a worldwide network association, thus facilitating understanding of the evolution and nature of these three concepts. The interviewee’s responses reflect her personal perspective, informed by both life experience and a theoretical framework that conceives of ALARPM first as a philosophy, a theory of learning and a methodology, and second as a method and technique.

Global government is on the rise, and with it a devolution of power to the grassroots. Subjugating nature is out of fashion and ecological living is the new imperative. The next generation of leaders will emerge not from the political class but from ordinary communities, bringing with them new modes of learning and new definitions of intelligence.

The aim of this paper is to present an interview and postscript that examine the specific meaning, rationale, conceptual framework, assessment and teaching of critical reflection in and on professional development in management and higher education from an action research perspective.

This article is presented in the new genre of PIP (Zuber-Skerritt, 2009): Preamble – Interview – Postscript. The Preamble (P) sets out the background, purpose, structure and conduct of the interview (I), which addresses six probing questions and is followed by a Postscript (P) that reveals additional comments and reflections on the interview, and identifies learning outcomes and implications.

Reflective practice is essential for a deep approach to learning, research and professional development and it is a driving force to enable learners to be adequately equipped for constant and complex change in today's and tomorrow's turbulent world.

The article is positioned to inspire further R&D in the current debate on urgently needed radical and rapid change in higher education for the twenty-first century.

As well as the article's practical suggestions about why and how to develop reflective learning/practice, the PIP conceptual model applied in this article offers a useful practical approach for researchers to explore self-ethnography through interviews.

Two conceptual models illustrate the essence of this article, providing practical help to academics and other professionals to advance reflective practice in research and learning.

In 1969, Warren Nutter left the University of Virginia Department of Economics to serve as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs in the Nixon administration. During his time in the Defense Department, Nutter was deeply involved in laying the groundwork for a military coup against the democratically elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende. Although Nutter left the Pentagon several months before the successful 1973 coup, his role in Chile was far more direct than the better-known cases of Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, James Buchanan, and Arnold Harberger. This chapter describes Nutter’s role in Chile policymaking in the Nixon administration. It shows how Nutter’s criticisms of Henry Kissinger are grounded in his economics, and compares and contrasts Nutter with other economists who have been connected to Pinochet’s dictatorship.

“Since films attract an audience of millions, the need and appetite for information about them is enormous.” So said Harold Leonard in his introduction to The Film Index published in 1941. The 1970's has produced more than enough — too much — food to satisfy that appetite. In the past five years the number of reference books, in this context defined as encyclopedias, handbooks, directories, dictionaries, indexes and bibliographies, and the astounding number of volumes on individual directors, complete histories, genre history and analysis, published screenplays, critics' anthologies, biographies of actors and actresses, film theory, film technique and production and nostalgia, that have been published is overwhelming. The problem in film scholarship is not too little material but the senseless duplication of materials that already exist and the embarrassing output of items that are poorly or haphazardly researched, or perhaps should not have been written at all.

Immigration dominates much of the current US sociopolitical discourse. The research on US-based immigrant information behavior, however, remains scant. To understand the role of information in immigration, this study explores information overload among Black immigrants in the US.

The researcher developed a literature-derived information overload scale to investigate participants' information access along with experiences and response to information overload.

Results suggest that participants experience information overload due to behavioral (e.g. the demands of needing, seeking, or using information), quantitative (i.e. volume or length), and qualitative (e.g. authority, diversity, or urgency) indicators. Most participants mitigate information overload by turning to intermediaries and filtering resources.

The information overload scale can advance knowledge of the role of information in immigrant acculturative stress.

LIS researchers and practitioners can utilize findings to foster social inclusion and well-being among immigrants.

Scholarship on immigrant information behavior must reflect the centrality of information in migration and how it shapes integration and acculturation.