This project provides a Knowledge Exchange (KE) for sharing ideas about systems and complex systems. It has created a dialogue between academics and practitioners.
The first phase of the project ran from January 2011 – September 2011 and was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). This phase enabled reflection on how theoretical ideas about professional practice and organisation and management in the public and voluntary sectors could be better integrated into practice. The project provided an online learning space for knowledge exchange and this was supplemented with face to face learning.
Participants were recruited through a website managed by the University of Brighton, Community University Partnership (Cupp). Twenty four participants were successfully recruited into the first phase of the project in January 2011. Participants were a mix of academics and practitioners.
Participants met in a closed virtual learning environment managed by Cupp. The participants attended an induction event and an online environment was populated and used. Discussion topics were posted each month. Practitioners assisted academics to move beyond the abstract nature of concepts and to find satisfactory working tools and methods. This made it possible to identify the best methods for linking theory and practice. By the end of the first phase in October 2011, a working toolkit was developed and this is now freely available from this website.
The project members are currently interested in disseminating and sharing the toolkit through consultancy and training workshops. More details will follow from this website in the near future.
Professor Phil Haynes, Principal Investigator.
