ABSTRACT
In this chapter I describe my approach to the problem of how one determines the unit of study. I recommend starting with a terrain and a clear and holistic focus for one’s study and then consider all the lines of infl uence that seem relevant. My experience as an elementary school teacher leads me to study “terrains” rather than issues or items; to study “the empty lot” rather than “litter,” to study “the fortune cookie factory” rather than to study immigration; to study “boarded up factory” rather than the industrial revolution, and to use systems thinking, which is about the relationships of the parts. It is about feedback loops, how one thing leads to another, and that one feeds back to the fi rst. For this reason, it is sometimes referred to as “thinking in circles” rather than “thinking in lines” (Morgan, 1986, p. 249). Th inking in circles recognizes that cause and eff ect are not mutually exclusive categories-that we all aff ect others and are aff ected ourselves; we are both infl uencers and infl uenced (Senge, 1990, p. 74).
