ABSTRACT
“Ensemble awareness” is defined and applied to community development, community engagement practice, action research, and PAR or participatory action research. The “inner practice” of the change agent, group process facilitator, and community engagement practitioner emphasizes generative, integral, and holistic sensing skills, including systems thinking. Narratives of community-based initiatives in the Global South illustrate transformative learning journeys of outside facilitators and grassroots leaders. The subjective side of social practice, called mistica (mística) in Spanish, is described. The literature on action research, the reflective practitioner, and triple-loop learning is discussed. The international case studies, narratives, and practitioner stories reveal the inner practice of change agents for personal transformation, community well-being, social change, and social justice. They dealt with uncertainty, found their blind spots, fostered systems emergence, and generated inclusive bonds of purpose, respect, and love.
