University of Twente Student Theses
Clash of logics in the educational and social organizational sector in Enschede
Bolscher, B.J.A. (2017) Clash of logics in the educational and social organizational sector in Enschede.
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| Abstract: | In line with other municipalities throughout the Netherlands, the municipality of Enschede is attempting to develop a more inclusive society in which everyone can participate in his or her own way. Multiple institutions responsible for this change address this program as ‘the expeditie’, which goal is to function as the beginning of a change from the current passive welfare state to an inclusive society. This paper focuses on the progress of the ‘expeditie’ in the educational sector and the social organisational sector in the city of Enschede. The ‘expeditie’ requires a transformation in thinking, acting and cooperation between different groups in society. It has been theorized in the literature that social innovation is a complex process and involves confrontations and tensions between groups that support different logics. These effect have to be solved or at least mitigated in order to let the groups eventually embrace the new logic. The aim of this paper is to observe what kind of actions and interventions occur during the moments where different societal groups meet and their effects in society. By attending various meetings, discussions, ‘verteltafels’, counselling sessions and by initiating interviews, different contradictions, clashes and related actions have been observed. It has been concluded that change agents who participate in the ‘expeditie’ enter an environment which is full of misunderstanding and scepticism by antagonist groups. And once the new logic is practiced by those groups, they often fall back into old practices. At the end it appears that the change agents try to change society while they are isolated between the dominant municipality of Enschede and different antagonist groups. The observed actions and interventions that are understood as praxis, have minor effect regarding the paradigm change, due to the introductory character of the ‘expeditie’, the still existing dominant logic and multiple unresolved tensions. The observed positive effects were mostly on pilot schools who already worked with the inclusive paradigm for some years. Practical findings argue that district teams should concentrate less on the paradigm change and more on concrete steps that can be realized instantly. Furthermore teachers and parents should be participating in district teams and district coaches have to reconsider their own inclusive intensions. Subsequently, this Thesis provides a few theoretical contributions. Current literature hasn’t focused much on the possible presence of scepticism and misunderstanding that the antagonist groups can have towards the change in logic. These subjects could be added to the existing model of Seo & Creed (2002). Moreover, observations confirm the presence of a paradox of embedded agency during the activities of the district teams, which is hard to overcome due to the skewed power relations between different societal groups. At last, this study displays that the model of Seo & Creed (2002) can be utilized in practice to observe and divide different micro- level tensions, contradictions and linked praxis’s in changing environments. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Clients: | Municipality of Enschede, Enschede, The Netherlands |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 85 business administration, organizational science |
| Programme: | Business Administration MSc (60644) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/73790 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
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