The practical orientation of action research, together with its embedded and participative principles, means it is particularly suited to complex, interconnected questions and ‘real life’ systemic issues. In the realm of first-person action research, Judi Marshall’s (1999) influential article “Living Life as Inquiry” described how such research can extend to one’s whole life whereby professional and personal questions can be set within politically relevant frames. Over the past two decades, many students and researchers have worked with and drawn much imaginative inspiration from the idea of living life as inquiry (LLI). However little has been written to describe how the practice develops and the many forms it can take. This article draws on our extensive experience as inquirers ourselves and as educators, working with students and change agents motivated to address social and environmental concerns. Twenty years after the original article we have conducted a reflective review that included surveying the literature, and working in depth with a range of stories and current practices. From this comes a textured expansion of the language and practice of living life as inquiry as it is approached from the specificity of people’s lives. Through narrative and visual textures, we present views into the many different ways LLI is developed through day-to-day practices of experimentation, data gathering, artistic exploration, intervention and reflection. We explore what this means for quality in the enactment of inquiry. The article draws particular attention to the embodied nature of inquiry and seeks to capture its fleeting, processual quality.

行动研究的实践导向，连同其嵌入和参与性原则，意味着它特别适用于复杂的、相互关联的问题和“现实生活”的系统性问题。在第一人称行动研究领域，朱迪·马歇尔 (Judi Marshall) (1999) 有影响力的文章“将生活作为探究生活”描述了此类研究如何延伸到一个人的一生，从而可以在与政治相关的框架内设置专业和个人问题。在过去的二十年里，许多学生和研究人员从“生活即探究”（LLI）的理念中汲取了许多富有想象力的灵感。然而很少有人写来描述如何实践的发展及其可以采取的多种形式。本文借鉴了我们作为探究者和教育者的丰富经验，与致力于解决社会和环境问题的学生和变革推动者合作。在原始文章发表 20 年后，我们进行了反思性审查，其中包括调查文献，并深入研究一系列故事和当前实践。以此作为探究，对生活的语言和实践进行了结构化的扩展因为它是从人们生活的特殊性来接近的。通过叙事和视觉纹理，我们展示了通过实验、数据收集、艺术探索、干预和反思的日常实践发展 LLI 的多种不同方式的观点。我们探索这对制定调查的质量意味着什么。这篇文章特别关注探究的具体化性质，并试图捕捉其转瞬即逝、过程性的特质。