No abstract

No abstract

This article builds on findings from 6 years of action research on change dynamics in the Dutch diplomatic arena concerned with tough issues such as dispensing foreign aid to reduce poverty. The complexity of tough issues can only be handled effectively with intensive local participation. Such participation is not straightforward as people may shy away from the unfamiliar repertoires, unpredictable processes, and inevitable opposition that come with the territory. This article focuses on how to facilitate local ownership in a series of paradoxical interventions with sufficient depth and credibility. It describes the dynamics enabling and frustrating the helping relationship during the initiation and execution of complex change.

This paper explores how action research takes place within and between four contexts: adding practical value, improving institutions, developing professions, and contributing to theory. We argue that action research is more than those activities conducted within these contexts: it is a process of handling the generative tensions in the boundary regions. Framing action research this way has proven helpful in recasting such tensions as meaningful, in thinking through research designs in teaching and practice, and in paying sufficient attention to boundary work. This model for conceptualizing action research has been refined over two decades of practice and reflection by the authors.

The colors of change is an overview of change paradigms, created about two decades ago, that has been intensively used, tested, refined, shared, and elaborated by practitioners and academics alike. Here, the "color theory" is presented as it is now, and is situated within the literature. Its four main applications are described as well as rules of thumb that have been derived from reflective practice. This chapter illustrates that the color theory is clearly not one thing to all people, as it is understood in very different ways, both in terms of its theoretical foundations as well as the complexity of its applications. This probably adds to the versatility of the theory. Bringing together key insights about the color theory for academics and practitioners, this chapter strives both to give a concise overview and to explore its richness.