Accepting the premise that there is a gap between academics and practitioners I considered the means to create a bridge for theoretical perspectives to enter practice, and equally for the reverse to occur.
Theory and practice are currently caught in a paradox, the environment is evolving fast with new players, new providers, new tools all forming a new network. Yet, engagement and discussion are slowed by definitional arguments about the discipline and bureaucratic turf wars. Reading some of the resulting definitions it is are hard to differentiate what PD methods could be used under that definition and which could not, as a result I argued that there is a need to look past definitional arguments to focus on the shared purpose – influencing behaviour – and through the shared focus discuss, share and exchange methodological insights.
Online engagement is one means for exchange, practitioners and academics engage through DipNote, MountainRunner, USC’s PD Blog and John Brown’s Press and blog review among many others. Some of the links can be seen through TouchGraph which creates an image of the Google related pages database.
Approaching the gap between theory and practice from a network perspective it is clear that individuals are needed to act as a physical bridge between academics and practitioners. However, a bridge is fine but will do little by itself; there needs to be something to go across the gap.
For academics to influence the world of practice, should they chose to do try, their approach might be to consider how they can engage in R&D for tools which meet the immediate challenges of the practitioner, while embodying the theoretical perspective the academic seeks to promote.
In effect, as I argue in the presentation, the gap between theory and practice might bridged to some extent by better Networked R&D.