Navigating spindrifts of change: A transdisciplinary inquiry into the experiences of a scholar-practitioner

• Main Author: Donnelly, Gabrielle
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-2016
• Subjects: Philosophy; Social research
• ISBN: 1369456182; 9781369456189

The field of social innovation and change is rapidly growing in a world increasingly perceived as uncertain, complex, and contradictory. This dissertation delves into my experiences as a scholar–practitioner in this domain of practice—a domain of practice based on the assumption that human skills, energy, creativity, and imagination can be mobilized toward addressing the world’s most pressing collective challenges. I weave the personal and the scholarly, the practical and the philosophical, as I investigate some of the emerging blind spots in the field of social innovation and change. The first area that I focus on is based on my experience that practitioners, including myself, perceive that we are in a transitional period between paradigms, a discontinuity or gap between worldviews. Sometimes, there is a tendency to articulate this shift in worldview as “leaving the old paradigm behind” and “embracing the new paradigm.” I explore the potential dangers of leaving out or leaving behind aspects of our human ingenuity and creativity that are central to forging alternatives if one defines these alternatives through a rejection of anything typically associated with modernity. Examples of this dynamic include valuing intuition, which involves a rejection of intellect; valuing practice, which involves a rejection of theory; valuing the feminine, which involves a rejection of the masculine; or valuing the whole, which involves a rejection of the parts. I situate contemporary binary oppositions visible in the field of social change and innovation within a larger historical context of binary thought, bringing attention to the constructed nature of modernity’s oppositions and how these patterns are showing up today. I offer guiding questions as a metapractice for working with binary oppositions, based on the theoretical perspectives of complex thought, transdisciplinarity, social construction, and relational theory. I take the exploration further by zooming in on the binary opposition of theory and practice, illustrating how it has contributed to the creation of oppositional identities between scholars and practitioners. I argue that one way to integrate theory and practice is through the creation of scholarly practitioners.