Gen Zendahl explores how modern research struggles to meet the demands of a polycrisis world. She contrasts the ever-expanding production of knowledge with our stagnant capacity for collective action, arguing that what we need is not another developmental hierarchy but a return to aliveness, curiosity, and embodied ways of knowing.
Drawing on the traditions of transdisciplinarity, action research, and generative action research, she outlines a relational model in which research becomes a shared, living practice rooted in participation, sensing, and responsiveness. Knowledge, in this view, flows like water: it must be allowed to move through communities, nourish understanding, and support systemic change.
Gen also examines how leverage for transformation lies less in institutional authority and more in the mindsets and everyday actions of teachers, carers, artists, and ordinary citizens. She highlights the importance of accessible, co-formative language and the power of metaphor and story to carry complex insights across boundaries.
