Enactive Agnosis: The playful use of form as a bodily activity of (not) knowing

This is an action research inquiry that takes place within the National Health Service in the UK. I am an NHS consultant, working primarily clinically, who has been involved and interested in change and improvement since 2010. I embarked on this doctorate with the intention of knowing how to do change better, to enhance the impact of conversations about change, and to undertake second-person action research that would impact on how we improve care in the NHS.
Early in the doctorate a move of cities and organisations revealed the challenge of context and how it shapes and constrains any possible inquiry. COVID-19 was then added into the mix a couple of years later and what emerged in response was first-person inquiry into my own epistemology. An exploration that resulted in a markedly altered understanding of ‘knowing’ and ‘not-knowing’ or perhaps more appropriately ‘not-knowledging’ and a focus on methodology.
This thesis is about coming to recognise the challenge and importance of ‘not-knowing’ in the context of change and healthcare, the importance of physicality and metaphor, of knowing versus knowledge, of playfulness as a mindset and of a pragmatic, realistic ‘ish’ positioning. About weaving these ideas into the overarching concept of enactive agnosis.
Enactive agnosis is offered as a methodology and a mindset in the realms of action research, arts-based research and healthcare change. A pragmatic, realistic, playful approach that recognises, enables and enacts ‘not-knowing’ and ‘good enough’ within the context of inquiry and change. A process of bodily active metaphorical knowing that holds and values the space of not-knowledging long enough to make sense differently, to know, to change.