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In times of unpredictability and large-scale socioeconomic changes, we need to bring novel concepts and phenomena like solidarity and the act of giving under the focus of leadership, management, and spirituality studies. In this enclosed paper, we address how the interpretations and expectations of the act of giving evolve across the levels of consciousness, also referred as stages of adult development. We apply neo-Piagetian constructive view on the human development. To unpack these regularities, we use a mixed-method research design. The research findings reveal that the interpretations and expectations of the act of giving evolve across the stages of adult development. They exhibit the tendency to move to less conditional, self-serving, and transactional interpretations and expectations behind the act of giving. Because the movement of the adult across stages (levels of consciousness) is a slow pace process - the paper also explores possible interventions that could make people more prone to the less conditional, self-serving, and transactional act of giving regardless of the stage of development. Thus, we study the impact of contemplative prayer on the change in the interpretations and expectations of the act of giving. The impact of contemplative prayer is such that it seems that a person moves to one stage higher when it comes to the interpretations and expectations behind the act of giving.

This study contributes to a better understanding of the transformative process towards inclusive innovation from the perspective of three literature branches, inclusive innovation, institutional entrepreneurship and path dependence. Based on these literature branches, we ensemble a heuristic to assess the role of Institutional Entrepreneurs in fostering Inclusive Innovation initiatives supported by National Entities in local communities. To assess the heuristic and answer the beforehand question, we used an exploratory case at the municipality of Cumbal, in Nariño (Colombia). Through secondary information analysis and preliminary fieldwork observations, we demonstrate usefulness of the heuristic to unfold the transformative process in local communities. Also, we identified Institutional Entrepreneurs as change agents.

This paper utilises the ‘sustainable innovation journeys’ concept to trace how people organise and design urban food initiatives and influence city-region food policy. We evaluate whether designs succeed or fail and monitor the exchange of ideas that takes place between stakeholders. Tracing these interactions reveals the transformative potential of innovative projects, particularly if the food system changes they bring to the fore are aligned with policy interests. Three case studies provide on-the-ground insights to assess how small and medium-sized enterprises at the micro-level induce sustainability shifts. The case studies are businesses in the city-regions of Rotterdam, The Netherlands (urban farm and circular food economy); Vigo, Spain (food, forest and multi-functional land use); and Zurich, Switzerland (organic food and short supply chains). Each initiative was studied in-depth over a two-year period, with follow-up analysis for a further four years to monitor change over time (2013–2018). The cases promote the adoption of micro-level innovation practices: locally designed transition pathways that bring the benefits of change to the city-region (i.e. from the micro-level initiative to meso-level policy). The analysis highlights the importance of ‘soft change’. This can be something as simple as visiting an inspiring urban food initiative and meeting with stakeholders to generate mutual understanding, from where interests align to influence food chain practices and policy. Soft changes act as ‘seeds of transition’ for a shift towards more sustainable urban food systems, but we observe too potentially negative impacts due to lack of alignment at the micro- (initiative) or meso- (city-region) levels.

Scholarship on voluminous geographies not only takes seriously geopolitics’ three-dimensionality, but also the ways bodies experience the diverse materialities and vulnerabilities of volumetric infrastructures on the one hand, and the earth and its dynamic ecosystems, on the other. Focusing on the relational sociality among bodies—or rather, beings—as they explore and map caves, I emphasize the shared quality of how voluminous—and in particular, subterranean—geographies are created, experienced, and represented. The history of collaboration between Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces and Cuban speleologists dedicated to the exploration, study, and conservation of the country’s thousands of caves, illustrates the geopolitical implications of this focus. Based on interview and ethnographic data, this paper examines the varied perspectives on the relationship between speleology and defense, beginning with an institutional history, and then shifting to the affective relational qualities of speleological practice, which I argue constitute a shared intimate geopolitics. These relational qualities manifest themselves in forms of relatedness among speleologists and places, some of which structure the organizational (including spatial) features of their practices and their resulting knowledge. Viewed through this lens, cave maps assume an intimate quality as well: as substances that bind, as heirlooms, and as tokens of reciprocity. This perspective challenges approaches to caves as disconnected voids empty of life and sociality. Indeed, caves not only amplify the social, they gather. To speak of caves as only geological phenomena is inaccurate and actually limits scholarly appreciation of their geopolitical transformative potential. In the case of Cuba, this paper makes an important contribution by accounting for intimate encounters with the earth and its representations as key players in geopolitics.

The solidarity economy in North America has received growing attention at multiple scales in the past ten years. As worker cooperatives in New York City enjoy newfound municipal support, narrative struggles emerge between actors within the solidarity economy space. The solidarity economy may be theorized as capitalism’s feminized ‘other’: malleable, unfixed, local, and difficult to quantify. This feminization extends to both its workforce, a majority of whom are women, and the labor it produces, primarily domestic work. It is for these reasons that solidarity economy work is often overlooked as a political economy capable of structural transformation, and the discomfort with its breadth has lead movement leaders to uphold and advocate for more ‘formal’ models like cooperatives and deploy ‘poverty alleviation’ and entrepreneurship narratives to stabilize the fluid field. I argue that this project blanches the radical edges of a movement, minimizing not only those whose labor accounts for the majority of solidarity economy work, but ignoring the transformative potential of sites where such work happens. Based on a series of qualitative interviews with solidarity economy practitioners, this paper argues that the dominant narrative of solidarity economy work in New York City ignores where most of this work occurs and by whom, erasing and undermining those efforts. Counter-narratives emerge in those ‘forgotten’ spaces and thus transform them into sites of radical, anti-capitalist organizing. In so doing, this paper poses a question for geographers about how movements may continue to challenge our assumptions about space.

INTRODUCTION This paper argues that particular experiences in the workplace are more important than others and can lead to transformational learning. This may enable practitioners to cross ‘vocational thresholds’ to new ways of being. AIM A notion of ‘vocational thresholds’ is developed, aiming to help build an understanding of the most powerful learning experiences of general practitioners (GPs). Vocational thresholds takes its cue from the idea of ‘threshold concepts’ - concepts that transform perspectives and integrate previously disconnected or hidden knowledge, sometimes in ways that are ‘troublesome’ to previously held beliefs. METHODS The paper is based on a thematic analysis of 57 GPs’ brief written accounts of a particularly powerful learning experience during their development. Accounts were provided in a conference session about an ongoing study of workplace-based structured learning arrangements in the fields of general practice medicine, engineering, and building. FINDINGS Most GPs’ accounts focused on development of dispositional attributes that moved them to a new understanding of themselves in relation to their work and patients. Just under two-thirds picked out informal and formal collegial relationships within purposeful learning arrangements as pivotal. A third picked out direct experiences with patients as shifting their perspective. CONCLUSION The emergent idea of vocational thresholds is offered as a way to frame the most important learning experiences identified by GPs. It supports a focus in early and ongoing development beyond accumulating clinical expertise and skills (knowing and doing), to dispositional capability (being) - vital for practitioners negotiating inherent and daily uncertainty. KEYWORDS General practitioners; Medical education; Vocational education; Identity; Learning experiences; Threshold concepts

Using a phenomenographic design, this research reports on a study of a cohort (N = 22) of graduate students’ conceptualizations of difference as they progressed through the only required diversity course in a science education program at a large, urban university in the American northeast. Data collection included biweekly course reflections, a modified Pedagogy of Science Teaching Test designed with students labeled with disabilities within its contextual framing, and biweekly ‘science for all’ lessons created by the participants that were not explicitly framed to address disability. Mixed-methods data analyses addressed to what extent these graduate students developed a critical lens toward difference (i.e., expressed, imagined, and/or imposed variations in human behavior and potential) and explored to what extent these theoretical elements transferred into pragmatic applications by the participants, for example in their lesson planning, that addressed multiple interpretations of difference to provide evidence of their capabilities to bridge theory to practice. Additionally, the case of disability as a marker of difference was also paid special attention to in light of lacking analyses in multicultural science education around issues of disability exclusion and teacher biases toward this marker of difference. The data suggest that while students in this ‘urban and multicultural science education’ course appear to be able to theorize critically about multicultural issues in urban science education (as per the goal of the course), their capacities to reflect on their pedagogical decisions within contexts that contain students labeled with disabilities, and plan comprehensive ‘science for all’ classroom learning environments, remained disciplinary focused, no matter if the students labeled with disabilities were the focal marker of difference within these contexts’ demographics or not. Emergent data analysis also suggests that disability was the least recognized and interpreted marker of difference, which led to limited ways that students took up this concept in comparison with other forms of difference such as race, class, and gender. Moreover, rather than emphasizing critical pedagogies that are pertinent for transformative change in science education for all diverse populations, the participants remained focused on narrowly defined, content-specific ways of teaching and learning science. Implications for this research include focusing on the goals of courses such as this one, attending to the unique case of disability as a liminal realm of conceptualizing difference, and supporting graduate students’ needs to aid in bridging the divide between theory and practice for both more traditional markers of difference taken up by multicultural science education (e.g., race, class, and gender) as well as disability as a marker of difference that is under theorized and lacking pragmatic application within such diversity requirement courses.

Our research community has limited understanding about the potential of video. This paper uses double stimulation and transformative agency to analyse two video modalities, extraction, and reflection; in a study about learning as it develops through family interactions. As researchers we were interested in children’s motives. However, the children were young; therefore, posing a methodological problem. Drawing on video footage and 24 film elicitation interviews with children and fathers from 12 families in Norway, England, Hong Kong and Mumbai, India; we present case study examples using double stimulation to analyse video. We gathered between 5-10 hours of footage about father-child interactions from each family. To analyse video modalities through double stimulation, we identified the first stimulus, second stimulus, and manifestations of transformative agency. We found by combining double stimulation with video for the purposes of extraction, the non-visible becomes visible. The combination indicates opportunities for development that generate the kind of qualitative transformations, which imply child development can be seen in a new way. By combining double stimulation with video for reflection, researchers can trace outward affective and cognitive consequences of the ‘mirror effect’, back to children’s conflict of motives, and how they decide to interpret what they see. Double stimulation therefore widens the potential of video. It shows video as an effective auxiliary stimulus to address the problem of researching young children’s motives.

How does a researcher investigate phenomena that continually emerge through, with and as various practices? This paper explores this question, drawing on transformative reflections on the unfolding process of an empirical research project investigating professional practice in Dutch early childhood education. The project initially applied an open, exploratory mixed-methods research design, with the aim of gaining a comprehensive understanding of educational realities. As the research project proceeded, however, we found ourselves exploring the multiplicity of educational realities. Incorporating actor-network theory (ANT) into the study design led to an important ontological re-positioning of the project. Drawing on our experiences, we aim to develop the argument that a methodologically heterogeneous research approach is a valuable way to evoke the paradigmatic and methodological reflexivity and humility that is needed to capture the emerging multiplicity of professional practice.

The elite theory of Max Weber has recently been rediscovered by political scientists and political theorists who have sought to explore both the heuristic and the normative potential of plebiscitary leader democracy. Notwithstanding the merits of this wave of studies, this paper argues that attention should be shifted from Weber's context-specific defence of plebiscitary leadership in post-WWI Germany to his broader conception of charisma as an attempt to grasp the enigma of significant social and political change. Contemporary democratic theory, this paper contends, can fruitfully draw on Weber to sink into the antinomies and ambiguities of a transformative democratic politics.

This study aims to examine and explain Mainland Chinese Generation Y tourists' travel constraints and revisit intention to Tibet, and to explore how these constraints are negotiated. A mixed-methods sequential transformative design was adopted in this study. The measurement scale of travel constraints for Tibet visits was developed in the first qualitative phase, which was followed by a quantitative investigation in which analysis of a questionnaire survey revealed that travel constraints had no significant or negative influences on Mainland Chinese Generation Y tourists' revisit intention. A further qualitative study was conducted to explain the quantitative results. Two themes emerged as crucial in negotiating travel constraints: the perception of self-efficacy, and self-concept and destination image congruence. The findings of qualitative and quantitative investigations are integrated and discussed in light of previous literature. Theoretical implications for future research and practical recommendations for the local tourism industry are also proposed.

The hospitality industry increasingly adopted well-being practices. However, academic literature has neglected to understand how hospitality organizations design services to improve well-being for customers, employees, communities, and societal and environmental well-being. This paper develops a novel concept, Transformative Hospitality Services (THS), which emanates from an ecosystem view and considers hospitality services as holding the possibility to transform the well-being of various constituents. Building on insights from in-depth interviews with industry experts, this paper identifies organizational dimensions that foster hospitality organizations’ transformative services offerings. Data also reveal facilitators and barriers for hospitality organizations to consider when developing THS offerings. A four-stage journey map is proposed to assess hospitality organizations’ journey towards becoming more transformative. As a result, this research presents contributions to transformative service research by advancing the concept of THS. Additionally, this research offers practical guidance for hospitality organizations through the development of the THS dimensions and journey map.

The recent scholarship on agency is mostly centered around a relational (also known as situative, contextual, distributed, and ecological) approach that draws attention to agency being situated in context and contingent on sociocultural interactivities and contextual dynamics. My central argument is that there is a residue of passivity in these conceptions. Illustrative of this are the works by Bietsa and colleagues which I analyse to reveal conceptual flaws that need to be addressed. To overcome these flaws, it is important to reconstrue no less than the very basic premises about human development, context/reality, and teaching-learning to foreground a more radical view of agency conducive to combatting inequalities and injustices in education. In the alternative approach, termed the Transformative Activist Stance, human development is posited to be not only fully immersed in the world and its contextual dynamics but, more critically, realized by each individual’s agentive contributions to communal practices, whereby these practices are changed as a whole every time a person acts as an active member of community. The emphasis is on the nexus of people changing the world and being changed in this very process of them changing the world—as two poles of one and the same, bi-directional and recursive, co-constitution of people and the world in a simultaneous self- and world-realization. People never merely react or respond to what exists but agentively act in co-realizing both the world and themselves. Agency in this account is accorded with a formative role in the processes of co-realizing both human development, the overall sociohistorical dynamics, and the world itself. Importantly, agency development is contingent on access to cultural tools that need to be provided by society and agentively taken up by each individual. There are starkly contrasting sociopolitical conjectures and implications geared to the issues of inequalities and injustices in education. The notion of a radical-transformative agency is deployed in order to expose and overcome ideologies of passive adaptation to, and acquiescence with, the existing order of things and the world as it presumably “is.” Keywords: Activism. Transformative activist stance. Vygotsky. Cultural-historical activity theory. Sociopolitical ethos. Onto-epistemology. Social change. Los estudios recientes sobre agencia están principalmente centrados en un enfoque relacional (también conocido como situacional, contextual, distributivo y ecológico) que llama la atención sobre el hecho de que la agencia está situada en un contexto propio y dependiente de interactividades socioculturales y dinámicas. Mi argumento central es que hay un hábito de pasividad en estas concepciones. Ilustrativo de eso son los trabajos de Biesta y demás colaboradores que analizo aquí, con el fin de revelar fallas conceptuales que necesitan ser abordadas. Para superar estas fallas, es importante reconstruir nada menos que las premisas básicas sobre el desarrollo humano, el contexto/realidad y la enseñanza-aprendizaje para poner en primer plano una visión más radical de agencia que conduzca al combate contra las desigualdades e injusticias en la educación. En el enfoque alternativo, llamado Posicionamiento Activista Transformador, el desarrollo humano es posicionado como siendo no solo totalmente inmerso en el mundo y en su dinámica contextual, sino también, de modo más crítico, realizado por las contribuciones de cada individuo a las prácticas comunitarias, por medio de las cuales esas prácticas son cambiadas como un todo toda vez que una persona actúa como un miembro activo de dicha comunidad. El énfasis está en el nexo de reciprocidad, en el que las personas cambien el mundo y sean cambiadas en ese proceso de cambiar al mundo – como dos polos de un mismo objeto, bidireccional y recursivo, promoviendo la co-constitución de personas y del mundo en una realización simultánea de sí y del mundo. Las personas nunca solo reaccionan o responden a lo que existe, sino que actúan activamente en la co-realización tanto del mundo como de sí mismas. La agencia tiene un papel formativo en los procesos de co-realización tanto del desarrollo humano, la dinámica sociohistórica general, así como del mundo mismo. Es importante resaltar que el desarrollo de la agencia depende del acceso a herramientas culturales que deben proporcionadas por la sociedad y adoptadas activamente por cada individuo. Existen conjeturas e implicaciones sociopolíticas fuertemente contrastantes en torno a las cuestiones de las desigualdades e injusticias en la educación. La noción de una agencia radical transformadora es empleada para exponer y superar las ideologías de adaptación pasiva y aquiescencia al orden existente de las cosas y del mundo como supuestamente “es”. Palabras clave: Activismo. Posicionamiento Activista Transformador. Vygotsky. Teoría de la actividad histórico-cultural. Ethos sociopolítico. Ontoepistemología. Cambio social. Os estudos recentes sobre agência são principalmente centrados em torno de uma abordagem relacional (também conhecida como situacional, contextual, distributiva e ecológica) que chama atenção para o fato de a agência estar situada em um contexto próprio e dependente de interatividades socioculturais e dinâmicas. Meu argumento central é que há um hábito de passividade nessas concepções. Ilustrativo disso são os trabalhos de Biesta e demais colaboradores que analiso aqui, a fim de revelar falhas conceituais que precisam ser abordadas. Para superar essas falhas, é importante reconstruir nada menos do que as premissas básicas sobre o desenvolvimento humano, contexto/realidade e ensino-aprendizagem para colocar em primeiro plano uma visão mais radical de agência que conduza ao combate às desigualdades e às injustiças na educação. Na abordagem alternativa, denominada Posicionamento Ativista Transformador, o desenvolvimento humano é posicionado como sendo não apenas totalmente imerso no mundo e em sua dinâmica contextual, mas também, de modo mais crítico, realizado pelas contribuições de cada indivíduo para as práticas comunitárias, por meio das quais essas práticas são mudadas como um todo sempre que uma pessoa age como um membro ativo da comunidade. A ênfase está no nexo de as pessoas mudarem o mundo e serem mudadas nesse processo de mudar o mundo – como dois polos de um mesmo objeto, bidirecional e recursivo, promovendo a co-constituição de pessoas e do mundo em uma realização simultânea de si e do mundo. As pessoas nunca só reagem ou respondem ao que existe, mas agem ativamente na correalização tanto do mundo quanto de si mesmas. A agência tem um papel formativo nos processos de correalização tanto do desenvolvimento humano, da dinâmica sócio-histórica geral, quanto do próprio mundo. É importante ressaltar que o desenvolvimento da agência depende do acesso a ferramentas culturais que precisam ser fornecidas pela sociedade e adotadas ativamente por cada indivíduo. Existem conjecturas e implicações sociopolíticas fortemente contrastantes voltadas às questões das desigualdades e das injustiças na educação. A noção de uma agência radical-transformadora é empregada para expor e superar ideologias de adaptação passiva e aquiescência com a ordem existente das coisas e do mundo como presumivelmente “é”. Palavras-chave: Ativismo. Posicionamento ativista transformador. Vygotsky. Teoria da atividade histórico-cultural. Ethos sociopolítico. Ontoepistemologia. Mudança social.

The transformative potential of service design rests on its ability to enable people to intentionally shape institutionalized social structures. To avoid simply reproducing social structures unconsciously, people need reflexivity—an awareness of existing social structures. Scholars suggest that the use of service design methods can enhance people’s reflexivity. However, the theoretical underpinning of this effect remains unclear, which in turn limits the realization of service design’s transformative potential in practice. In response, using an abductive approach that combines theoretical and empirical inputs, we develop an integrative framework that explains the mechanisms by which service design methods can increase people’s reflexivity. The current study contributes to the evolving service design discourse with an alternative categorization of service design methods, based on their affordances for different modes of reflexivity. The framework also reveals the underlying processes by which the use of service design methods can support people’s work with institutionalized social structures as design materials to enable transformation. This research supports a more thoughtful use and strategic development of service design methods to support transformative aims.

Purpose Previous research in sociology, psychology and fashion studies has investigated the concept of diversity in the fashion context, but the topic remains largely understudied within the realm of consumer research. This study aims to examine the reactions of underrepresented women to the fashion industry’s lack of diversity. Design/methodology/approach A total of 38 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted among a sample of female consumers who were diverse with respect to racial and ethnic background, socioeconomic class, religion, sexual orientation, age, body type and physical appearance. Findings Using Bourdieu’s forms of capital – social, cultural, economic and symbolic – the findings shed light on the process of virtual community formation on social media in response to the lack of diversity in fashion; reveal fashion consumers’ power to enact institution-level change, compelling the industry to become more diverse and inclusive; demonstrate the outcomes of capital accumulation and illustrate how all forms of capital are produced by and reproduce each other. Originality/value This study proposes a new outcome of capital accumulation on virtual communities, termed “transformative value,” in addition to the social and information values identified in earlier scholarship.

PurposeDespite over 30 years of focus on supply chain collaboration, companies continue to struggle to achieve collaborative advantage. To better understand why some companies are able to collaborate for competitive advantage and others can't, the authors explore how managerial commitment enables collaborative capabilities.Design/methodology/approachThe authors employed a longitudinal inductive study, interviewing companies with reputations for intense supply chain collaboration at four different times over 20 years.FindingsThe authors identified managerial commitment as a super-ordinate enabler. They describe the dynamics of commitment development and explore three types of commitment: instrumental, normative and transformative. The authors document key antecedents and outcomes of each type of commitment.Research limitations/implicationsTheory regarding the antecedents to commitment to collaborative capability is underdeveloped. The authors elaborate these antecedents and the dynamics that enable or undermine the commitment necessary to build effective collaboration capabilities.Practical implicationsThe authors provide insight (i.e. a practical and actionable roadmap) into the process companies use to cultivate commitment to collaboration and value co-creation.Originality/valueCollaboration is critical to value co-creation, including effective supply chain risk mitigation and lasting sustainability efforts. The authors elaborate a theory of commitment dynamics that explains why most companies never go beyond basic levels of collaboration. At the same time, the authors provide a roadmap for deep, transformative collaboration.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the fourth industrial revolution, and in higher education it will fundamentally transform the work of academics and higher education administrators. AI will also have several implications for students, including a reconsideration of what sorts of skills and knowledge should be taught and developed in the academy to prepare students for digital working lives. As social work educators, we have begun to wonder what the implications of AI in the academy will have for social work education. For educators, there are implications for pedagogy that go well beyond the introduction of new digital tools that merely integrate into existing teaching models and practices. This is because AI will not simply add to existing teaching modes and practices, but will fundamentally transform teaching and learning. Drawing on recent literature and research into in AI and higher education, this article explores possible future implications for social work education. We identify the transformative and disruptive potential of AI in higher education, and consider how this intersects with the ethical and relational side of social work as a profession. Implications for social work education are canvassed

There is a growing interest in the progressive potential of remunicipalisation, a global trend for towns, cities, and even subnational regions to take formerly privatised assets and services back into public ownership. In this paper, we offer a novel conceptualisation of remunicipalisation, developing a spatialised conjunctural perspective through critical engagement with the work of Stuart Hall, Antonio Gramsci, and recent geographical scholarship on political economy transitions. This draws attention to the open, dynamic, political, and spatially diverse aspects of remunicipalisation as part of a mutating process of neoliberalism. Emphasising the conjunctural insight of neoliberalism’s shifting and variegated terrain on which progressive forces have to mobilise, our theorisation has implications for left political strategy and broader transformative projects against a backdrop of global economic, social, and ecological crisis.

International audience; Consumer demand is considered a major driver in the food systems transitions and food policies have become characterized by a variety of attempts to steer food consumption by increasing consumer responsibility. However, there is a gap between the way to deal with sustainable consumption goals, and related forms of responsibility, in the institutional sphere and at the household scale. This gap reflects the disjunction between the normative aim of these policies and the cognitive and practical resistances in changing habits. This paper addresses the responsibility concerns pursued by an institutional experimental tool implemented by local institutions and based on collective experimentation. It draws on an in-depth study and ethnographic survey of two editions of the program implemented in two sites in south-eastern France. Combining practice theories and pragmatist sociology, we propose an analytical framework based on the key phases of habit change (disruption, problematisation, experimenting) and components of social practices (meanings, competences, artefacts). Our results suggest that this experimental tool, through cognitive and practical activities, allows for collective problematisation and experimentation which, in turn, allows for a greater reflexivity about one's own habits and stimulates the integration of new practices. In spite of the fact that the responsibilisation processes fostered remain at the household level, collective questioning and experimentation can both highlight what inhibits habit change and enable transformative change at this level. However, changes at a broader level would require the involvement not only of consumers but of much more diverse food system actors.

Creators of alternative proteins (APs) claim to provide solutions, so-called promissory narratives, to the messy and complex problems in our food system. Through these promissory narratives APs are said to offer responsible consumption. Our article uses convention theory to explore how justifications by AP companies change and expand from primarily using civic concerns (e.g. the environment, animal welfare) to focusing on a much wider range of justifications, including financial, status, and traditions or trust as these products move into the marketplace. This work makes an original contribution by extending convention theory and the broader theory of regimes of engagement to the marketization of APs. Marketization refers to the creation of new market relations around new goods. Our results also challenge the rapidly expanding AP literature that has claimed these companies seek to encourage people to care about civic concerns, like the environment and animal welfare. Despite these results, we argue APs can contribute to responsible consumption through distributed responsibility, but there is always the danger that non-market values may be subsumed under market values, thereby stunting the transformative potential of APs.

Over the last two decades, increasing participation rates in post-secondary education in many countries have been accompanied by decreases in aggregate economic growth and raising social tensions. It is obvious now that education does not ‘automatically’ produce more well-being (at least, if conventionally measured through income or gross domestic product) either for the individual or for society. This puts the question about education’s ‘utility’ in a new light, especially in relation to funding, which is central to the policymaking process. We briefly review literature on various rationales for supporting education and analyze existing evidences concerning the effects or consequences for societies of such investments in education and its related expansion. We outline two alternative agendas for positioning education in the framework of broader socioeconomic development. These agendas stem from different answers to the core question: can education drive the change in other spheres of societal life, or does it only respond to and follow the logics of larger institutional transformations? We suggest greater recognition in policy and public debates of the possible contribution that education may have to shaping transformative agency, and outline related prospects and potential pitfalls.

Purpose Social innovation education aims to equip students with the skills and mindsets to pursue sustainable and just solutions to complex challenges, yet many programs fail to address the power dynamics underlying unjust social structures. This paper aims to examine a social innovation course that integrates equity, diversity and inclusion principles through critical service-learning. Design/methodology/approach Researchers conducted semi-structured interviews of 25 students and 5 key informants in a qualitative, single case design to understand multiple perspectives on significant factors in transformative learning. Document review and auto-ethnographic insights provide additional case background. Findings Students identified the service experience as unique and high impact. Significant factors included the atypical service structure, the EDI framework, and the partner organization as an exemplar in the field. Students displayed a spectrum of learning, from recall and comprehension to critical evaluation, new worldviews, and behavior change. Research limitations/implications The findings of this qualitative study pertain to one partnership but are generalizable to theories. These findings are plausibly transferable to other experiential social innovation courses embedded in elite, private, predominately white research universities. Originality/value This empirical case examines a unique pedagogical and curricular innovation. By seeking to understand factors and outcomes of experiential learning, this study contributes to the literature on social innovation education and critical service-learning. The analysis produced novel insights for faculty and institutions aiming to integrate equity, diversity, and inclusion goals into social innovation programs.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the factors driving and mitigating the experienced vulnerabilities of women undergoing the transformative service of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), and how this influences women’s evaluations and intentions. Design/methodology/approach The conceptual framework was tested using quantitative data collected via an online survey of Australian women who have undergone IVF treatment. Hayes’ PROCESS macro was used to analyse the data. Findings The results indicate that women’s persistent goal-striving alongside their perceived personal sacrifices influence the association between their need for parenthood and their experienced vulnerability. Institutional factors such as IVF clinic technical and interpersonal quality influence these consumers’ IVF experience evaluations and word-of-mouth (WoM) intentions. Research limitations/implications This study’s results are limited to women who are undergoing IVF treatment. Further empirical work is needed to deepen the understanding of the role played by partners and other family members in women’s IVF experiences. Practical implications IVF clinics can reduce women’s experienced vulnerability by encouraging women who have a good probability of succeeding to persist in the pursuit of the goal of conceiving a child via IVF. This can be achieved by enabling and empowering them so that they give themselves the best chance during treatment, thus facilitating their control. Managing the expectations of those women with a lower probability of success is also recommended. The importance of the technical and interpersonal quality delivered by IVF clinics in influencing the positive evaluations and behavioural intentions of women experiencing vulnerabilities is further highlighted. Originality/value This study contributes to the transformative service research literature by: examining the IVF transformative experience, which has been largely overlooked; focussing on the intersection of transformative services and consumers experiencing vulnerability, which is an emerging research area; and testing a framework quantitatively that intermingles individual and institutional factors as antecedents and consequences of consumers’ experienced vulnerabilities, advancing the existing conceptual and qualitative work.

In this conceptual article, I examine the turn of justice-oriented research and teaching from transformative to traumatic and its relationship to antiblackness. I consider the affordances and limits of research and teaching that makes antiblackness visible while simultaneously citing potentially traumatizing portraits of Black suffering. Drawing from critical multicultural education and social justice scholarship, alongside Black intellectual thought in literary studies, visual studies, Eastern philosophy, and participatory and ethnographic research, I ask whether and how researchers should engage justice-informed research and teaching. I offer insights to consider when seeking either to capture antiblack injustice or to share it as curriculum.

In this article, we propose a distinctive critical, reflexive approach to relational ethics in ‘collaborative, democratic and transformative’ research. Underpinning the approach is the view that the buzzwords of ‘collaboration’ and ‘co-creation/co-production’ may signify equitable, symmetrical power relations and, as a result, romanticise collaborative research as straightforward processes of inclusion. The approach integrates critical, reflexive analysis of the play of power in the ‘with’ in ‘research with, not on, people’ and the ‘co’ in ‘co-creating knowledge’ into the ongoing collaborative research process. As a main method for critical, reflexive analysis, the approach uses ‘thinking with’ autoethnography. In the article, we illustrate the approach by showing how we ‘think with’ autoethnographic texts to respond to discomfort and analyse the tensions in the co-constitution of knowledge and subjectivities in the preliminary phase of a collaborative, participatory research project on dance for people with Parkinson’s disease and their spouses.

Research findings generally agree that international-service-learning (ISL) experiences may contribute to changes in the self in service learners. However, few studies have investigated how the self is experienced and rediscovered in the process of ISL. The purpose of this study was to investigate how students experienced their own self-becoming in interpersonal encounters with locals during ISL experiences. Seven in-depth, semistructured interviews were conducted with seven college students engaged in a 21-day ISL project in Ghana; their accounts were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Three major themes emerged from the data analysis: (1) experiencing a gap, (2) launching out into the deep, and (3) embracing new possibilities. The findings provide a basis for future research and demonstrate the potential of ISL to help students explore and reconstruct their sense of self.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of service flexibility in addressing consumer vulnerability for chronically-traumatized consumers within the funerary context. Design/methodology/approach Using phenomenological philosophy and a grounded approach, data was collected and analyzed through 12 depth interviews with funeral service providers, coupled with observations and photographs of three second-line funeral processionals. Findings Study results include the following three primary roles of service providers in supporting chronically-traumatized consumers: the role of service fluidity in addressing trauma, mitigating vulnerability via service providers as community members and alleviating suffering through compassionate service. Service flexibility and value co-creation efforts were executed through an expansive service ecosystem of vendors. Practical implications When consumers experience vulnerability that demands reliance upon service industries, service providers can intentionally implement fluidity and agility in service design, adopt understanding and altruistic practices, and operate with empathy and compassion to orchestrate mutually-beneficial service outcomes. Social implications Rooted in transformative service research, providers are advised to consider modifying services to improve well-being and mitigate vulnerability for chronically-traumatized consumers via fluidity, community and compassion. Originality/value This study contributes originality to the body of service marketing literature by illustrating how service providers alleviate vulnerability for chronically-traumatized consumers through three adaptive service strategies.

How can we make rational decisions that involve transformative experiences, that is, experiences that can radically change our core preferences? L. A. Paul ([2014]. Transformative Experience. Oxfor...

The research aimed to discover learning barriers that educators unconsciously raise in students of the organisation development master’s course at Corvinus University of Budapest within an experiential and transformative educational setting. The research follows the interpretive and critical traditions of organisation studies and applies the concept of responsible research and innovation (RRI) in its research design. This article aspires to present a case that can be used by management educators working with experiential pedagogical approaches in higher education. Research results displayed a lack of emotional security and a lack of common vision and understanding as the main obstacles to students’ transformative learning through the experiential learning process. Results suggest dialogical practice for building trust and understanding to eliminate alienation in student-teacher relationship and to improve learning quality. Finally, limitations and further research directions are discussed.

The emerging concept of responsible research and innovation (RRI) in some ways always relates to sustainability. In the transition towards sustainability, the authors need to build responsibility for both society and the environment in higher education and management education. Non-formal approaches to learning provide an opportunity to transform a student’s ‘head, heart and hand’, including at the social level as well. This paper showcases the role of experiential and transformative learning in higher education practice. Two of their courses are described and analysed, which are intended to familiarise students with the problem of sustainability within economic higher education. The authors share the theoretical and practical experiences of designing, teaching and assessing these courses. They aim to contribute to the discussion on how business education could be producing useful and credible knowledge that addresses problems important to nature and society.

Advocacy has been identified as a relevant way for counsellors to respond to the social inequalities in the world of work and education in today’s neoliberal context. This article draws on a qualit...

Marketization—the entry of the market logic into a field originally insulated from it—is a transformative force that has reshaped many fields, including education, health care, the arts, and religion. Marketization brings a unique set of challenges for established organizations: it opens a field to market-style mechanisms of consumer choice and competition, which undermines the legitimacy of established organizations, and it creates contradictory demands for organizational actions. How can established organizations adapt to marketization? To answer this question, the authors study the adaptation of five established religious schools to the marketization of education in Brazil. They develop the novel hybridization strategy of nested coupling and explain that established organizations respond to marketization by balancing competing demands for differentiation and conformity. The authors show how religious schools nest the market logic within the religious logic by reconfiguring their resources to conform to market demands while differentiating themselves through their religious orientation. Nested coupling provides a novel strategic approach for established organizations in marketized or marketizing fields, such as hospitals, museums, and schools, to capitalize on a logic that preexists marketization and to create a unique competitive positioning in the market.

Purpose Service captivity is described as the experience of constrained choice whereby a consumer has no power and feels unable to exit a service relationship. This study aims to explore how positive service experiences can contribute to service captivity in the alternative financial services (AFS) sector for consumers experiencing financial vulnerability. Design/methodology/approach A total of 31 interviews were undertaken with Australian consumers of payday loans and/or consumer leases. Findings The authors reveal a typology of consumers based on their financial vulnerability and their experience with AFS providers. Then they present three themes relating to how the marketing practices of these providers create a positive service experience, and, in doing so, can contribute to service captivity for consumers experiencing financial vulnerability. Research limitations/implications The benefits derived from positive service experiences, including accessible solutions, self-esteem, and a sense of control over their financial situation, contribute to the service captivity of some consumers, rendering alternative avenues less attractive. Practical implications AFS providers must ensure a socially responsible approach to their marketing practices to minimize potentially harmful outcomes for consumers. However, a systems-level approach is needed to tackle the wider issue of financial precarity. Policymakers need to address the marketplace gaps, regulatory frameworks and social welfare policies that contribute to both vulnerability and captivity. Originality/value This research extends the understanding of service captivity by demonstrating how positive service experiences can perpetuate this situation. Further, specific solutions are proposed at each level of the service system to address service captivity in the AFS sector.

Mezirow’s theory of transformative learning presupposes agency. Agency is the means by which the limitations of an inadequate meaning perspective are transcended. It is the creative activity necessitated by an encounter with a disorienting dilemma. This implies that transformation cannot be achieved from within the existent meaning perspective. It can only be exercised from outside that constellation of constructs. This depends on the person dissociating from that perspective in order to enter a groundless state where originary thought is possible. In that state, they have access to an impersonal consciousness. That impersonal consciousness, which constructed the problematic meaning perspective, is now utilized for designing a more adequate one. These processes are accompanied by associated affects. For example, anxiety is the affect associated with groundlessness whereas depression with the lack of agency. I suggest that agency arises when the situation demands it and falls away after the dilemma has been addressed.

This case study addressed effects of international student teaching on U.S. teacher candidates’ cross-cultural adaptability and perspectives on language, culture, and schooling. Interviews and the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory were collected from 18 participants before and after 4 weeks student teaching internationally. Interviews were coded using the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory dimensions and interpreted using Mezirow’s transformational learning theory. Findings suggested that increased cross-cultural adaptation aligns with transformational learning. Transformational learning led participants to question assumptions and consider incorporating different perspectives in future teaching.

Transformative changes in the societal and service context call out for the service discipline to develop a coherent set of priorities for research and practice. To this end, we utilized multiple data sources: surveys of service scholars and practitioners, web scraping of online documents, a review of published service scholarship, and roundtable discussions conducted at the world’s foremost service research centers. We incorporated innovative methodologies, including machine learning, natural language processing, and qualitative analyses, to identify key service research priorities that are critical to address during these turbulent times. The first two priorities— technology and the changing nature of work and technology and the customer experience—focus on leveraging technology for service provision and consumption. The next two priorities— resource and capability constraints and customer proactivity for well-being—focus on responding to the changing needs of multiple stakeholders. Further, we identified a set of stakeholder-wants from the literature and include research questions that tie key stakeholder-wants to each of the four priorities. We believe the set of research priorities in the present article offer actionable ideas for service research directions in this challenging environment.

In this paper, we discuss the role of dialogue in two layers; first, in relation to two self-organised communities of science teachers in which we participated and, second, our process of coming together during our PhDs to analyse these communities, a dialogue about the dialogue. Regarding the first layer, there is much to learn from science teachers and science teacher educators when they are organised in sites of learning that can be spaces of hope, beginnings, and becoming, as is illustrated in the case of these two self-organised communities. Regarding the second layer, we discuss the value of dialogue and the possibilities it offers to develop ideas for science education in a way that might be democratising, emancipatory, and offering counter-narratives in a neoliberal Chile. By engaging in this dialogue revisiting the practices of our communities, we gained a sense of agency within the field of science education. However, we realised that we need to move towards a critical view within our communities, and more contextual and transformative science education by translating these sites of hope to our educational praxis today. For us, this relates both to developing a collective view of how to make science education provide pedagogical conditions and experiences for critical and engaged citizenship and thinking how we can act and engage with different settings in solidarity. One way of moving towards this is by developing a political knowledge of our disciplines through a collective scientific conscientisation. Our communities are the departure points to achieve this.En este artículo, discutimos el papel del diálogo en dos capas; primero, en relación a dos comunidades autoorganizadas de profesoras y profesores de ciencias en las que participamos y, segundo, nuestro proceso de reencontrarnos durante el doctorado para analizar estas comunidades, un diálogo sobre el diálogo. En relación con la primera capa, en nuestra experiencia hay muchas cosas que podemos aprender de profesoras y profesores de ciencia y de personas que trabajan en educación científica, cuando están organizadas en comunidades, como las dos que presentaremos aquí, como sitios de aprendizaje que pueden ser espacios de esperanza, inicio y creación. En cuanto a la segunda capa, discutimos el valor del diálogo y las posibilidades que ofrece para desarrollar ideas para la educación científica de una manera que pueda ser democratizadora, emancipadora y ofreciendo contra-narrativas en un Chile neoliberal. Al participar en este diálogo revisando las prácticas de nuestras comunidades, hemos ganado un sentido de agencia dentro del campo de la educación científica. Sin embargo, nos dimos cuenta de que necesitamos avanzar hacia una visión crítica dentro de nuestras comunidades, y una educación científica más contextual y transformadora al traducir estos sitios de esperanza a nuestra praxis educativa actual. Para nosotras, esto se relaciona tanto con el desarrollo de una visión colectiva de cómo hacer que la educación científica brinde condiciones y experiencias pedagógicas para una ciudadanía crítica y comprometida como con pensar cómo podemos actuar e involucrarnos en diferentes entornos de manera solidaria. Una forma de avanzar hacia esto es desarrollando un conocimiento político de nuestras disciplinas a través de una concientización científica colectiva. Nuestras comunidades son un punto de partida para lograrlo.

This Research Note applies the concept of ‘resilience’ to explore how Neighbourhood Networks in Leeds in the UK – 37 local community organisations supporting older people – responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. It highlights how understanding resilience as a capacity that can be absorptive, adaptive or transformative helps describe the response of community organisations during the pandemic, highlighting a process of ongoing adjustment and innovation as the pandemic evolved. We suggest that the concept of resilience is helpful in this context for understanding how community organisations responded to the emergent nature of the crisis, but it is less effective at revealing why that may have been the case. This limitation notwithstanding, we argue that absorptive, adaptive and transformative capacity ought to be desirable attributes of community organisations if they are distributed equitably and enable them to fulfil their mission and contribute to social change.

In 1994, as soon as South Africa became a democratic country, the first step taken by the new democratic government was to introduce various transformative constitutional and legislative interventions that sought to redress all the past apartheid discriminatory laws. This paper looks at these interventions by critically showcasing how they are being used to transform and reform land by ensuring inclusivity and equity in South Africa where the previously denied, disposed and segregated Black majority have access and are benefitting broadly.

This article presents research conducted with six French physicians who have been trained in complementary and alternative medicines. The perceived effects of this body-mind training, (i.e. ‘Awakening the Sensible Being’), are addressed in the thesis being posited. These ‘Awakening the Sensible Being’ practices help develop a quality of presence to self and to others, which are desirable qualities for health care professionals. An investigation was conducted using two types of interviews: comprehensive and explicitation. The two paths of analysis are introduced, as well as the results achieved, which are linked to the personal sphere of the participants. The participants reported having experienced some identity transformations which led them to place more emphasis on their inner rather than their external reference points. They also reported feeling more centred and healthier.

The proliferation of popular culture depictions of Black Lives Matter (BLM) yields questions about media and marketing professionals’ (mis)use of representations and rhetoric associated with social justice movements, and, more precisely, Black activism. This commentary is titled “Screening Black Lives Matter” in an attempt to: 1) reflect on how BLM has been re-mediated and re-presented on screen in mainstream media and popular culture, and 2) consider who and what is typically excluded (“screened out”) from such images, narratives, and media production processes. Make no mistake about it, inclusion in anti-Black institutions, including media organizations and industry discourse, is far from being a liberationist goal. However, reflecting on who and what is foregrounded in on-screen depictions and discourses related to BLM in TV and film can contribute to important understandings of how Black social justice organizing is typically framed in contemporary mainstream media in ways that distort the reality of activism, such as by sidelining the work of Black LGBTQ+ people and diminishing or denying the radical politics at the core of such collective and transformative efforts. What does all of this suggest about the relationship between media, marketing, and Black activism? This commentary considers such issues.

The social dimension of innovation is growing due to unprecedented wicked global challenges we all face, including COVID-19 pandemic. Those challenges in their dynamic complexity require new cross-scale, cross-domain and action-oriented approaches at the universities. I argue that universities need to go beyond their traditional missions and to take an active role in a transformative change by working with their communities and creating real social impact. The fourth mission concept is particularly relevant as it puts emphasis on the universities roles in sustainable development. I propose to reflect on those new roles of universities in the context of quadruple/quintuple helix model that is seen as playing an important role in fostering the shift from technical to social innovations. Social innovation is an element of a regional innovation system, in which the importance of knowledge is not determined exclusively by competitiveness and productivity, but by taking into account the creation of social well-being, the impact on the quality of life and co-creation of knowledge as part of public–private partnerships. By addressing social innovation practices from a perspective of Polish public universities, it fills the gap of relatively few studies on institutional change and incentive structures that influences the ability of universities to engage in social innovation by proposing. I propose to adapt the socially engaged university model that could be a tool for stimulating and strengthening their functions within a modern regional innovation system allowing for an active role of civil society organisations.

Unchosen transformative experiences—transformative experiences that are imposed upon an agent by external circumstances—present a fundamental problem for agency: how does one act intentionally in circumstances that transform oneself as an agent, and that disrupt one’s core projects, cares, or goals? Drawing from William James’s analysis of conversion (1917) and Matthew Ratcliffe’s account of grief (2018), I give a phenomenological analysis of transformative experiences as involving the restructuring of systems of practical meaning. On this analysis, an agent’s experience of the world is structured by practically significant possibilities that form organized systems on the basis of the agent’s projects and relationships. Transformative experiences involve shifts to systems of possibility, that is, changes to habitual meanings and to how an agent’s projects are situated in relation to one another. I employ the enactivist notion of sense-making to analyze how an agent rebuilds the meaning structures disrupted by a transformative experience. In an unchosen transformative experience, an agent adjusts to a significant disruption through a process of sense-making in precarious conditions. By establishing new patterns of bodily and social interaction with the world, one alters the practical meanings of one’s surroundings, and thereby reconstitutes oneself as an intentional agent.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand the experience of three formerly abrasive leaders who improved their conduct and management strategies following a workplace intervention.Design/methodology/approachNarrative inquiry, a personal and collaborative research method, revealed the experience of three leaders in their shift from destructive behaviors. Concepts from adult development, specifically Kegan's constructive-development theory (CDT) and Mezirow's transformative learning theory (TL), provided a lens to better understand the leaders' personal development.FindingsThis study culminated with three co-composed narrative accounts and an analysis of narrative threads. The focus of this paper is the interpretive narrative thread analysis. The developmental experience of these three leaders included disruption, awakening and equipping.Research limitations/implicationsThis study included three leaders. The experience of these leaders may not be representative of other formerly abrasive leaders.Practical implicationsThis initial exploratory study contributes to CDT and TL by suggesting leader interpersonal development is an intensely emotional experience that transcends the mechanics of developmental stages. In practice, this study indicates abrasive leaders may improve their conduct and management strategies with organizational support, including supervisor intervention and specialized professionals.Originality/valueThis paper offers insight for scholars and human resource (HR) professionals on the emotionally intense experiential journey of leaders who improved their interpersonal conduct. This study introduces concepts from CDT and TL into the study of workplace psychological aggression (WPA), and it expands the limited knowledge of how HR can support positive perpetrator change.

The objective of the present review on the evolution of Green Chemistry (GC), since its emergence until 2016 (25th anniversary), aimed an integrated vision of its progress along the three phases of its development: emergence, divulgation and consolidation. The methodology involved the analysis of a selection of bibliography on the evolution of GC collected from issues of the ACS symposia series; editorials in specialized GC journals; and commemorative birthday papers/editorials of these journals and of the GC itself. The analysis allowed to identify and discuss the characteristics and conceptions of GC agents about fundamental concepts and procedures, in order to visualize and better understand the state of knowledge and the subject areas that make up the field. The main alterations identified in the evolution of GC were: it acquired a better defined identity, with more participation of academy and increased scope; was progressively framed in sustainability; has been aspiring to a holistic frame (but it is still dominated by its original reductionism) and to a change on the nature of the innovation for its implementation, from incremental to transformative. The analysis suggests that for supporting expansion and consolidation of GC the following aspects deserve attention: full validation of chemical greenness by metrics; better characterization of the frontiers of GC research areas/themes; increased integration between academy and industry; and penetration in chemistry curricula. Its basic philosophy being the practice of a chemistry more focused on the environment preservation, GC means a new stage in nature and in the history of Chemistry.

Purpose This paper aims to examine graduate student learning experiences and perceptions of quality and the extent to which these learners were living the intended experiences that academic programs are seeking to foster. Design/methodology/approach Using a multiple case-study design, a three-stage interview protocol used with six PhD candidates across three faculties as well as 25 institutional, provincial and national documents served as principal sources of data. A within-case analysis was performed for each case and compared via a cross-case analysis. Findings The four principal factors that characterized the PhD candidate learning experience emerged as the significance of intentional individualized guidance; the importance of social interactions and community; becoming an independent scholar; and the transformative nature of learning. Gaps were identified between institutional intent and the learner experience. Recommendations are made regarding the adoption of indicators of quality that focus on student learning and notions of transformation. Originality/value This investigation attempts to tell distinct and shared stories of the highly contextualized and complex phenomenon of quality in PhD student learning. With limited information regarding how programmatic development is lived by students, this study’s comparison of institutional characterizations and student perceptions of quality sheds light on existing strengths to leverage, and gaps to invest in, at the institutional and program levels.

The University Without Walls experiment on the University of Massachusetts, Amherst campus, began in 1971. The central animating concepts of the original experiment include the value of knowledge that is learned both within and without ‘the walls’ of the university. These various knowledge sources are integrated into the student’s individualized plan of study within an interdisciplinary analytic framework. This approach is described here as integrative interdisciplinary studies and its on-going strength as an approach to adult learning is in the synergy of these approaches. An integrative interdisciplinary approach supports transformative learning within a context-specific understanding of knowledge.

In this article, we engaged in pláticas to write about the methodology of pláticas. We show the use of this method by theorizing the pláticas. Our pláticas helped us reveal how we have experienced epistemicide and apartheid of knowledge blocked by epistemological racism in academia. We emphasized how the marginalization and invalidation in academia of this method happens and continues to happen especially in the social sciences. We demonstrate how this method has not been absent, but rather it has not been legitimized in academia. We also show how our refusal to employ dominant epistemologies allows us to move toward transformative qualitative inquiries.

In this study, we examine the conflicts and unintended consequences that arise from the diverse social conventions constituting a transformative service. We draw on convention theory and an ethnographic study to interpret a community-based palliative care initiative in Kerala (India) as a transformative service system. We contribute to transformative service research by developing a dialectical transformative service system framework that is a synthesis of the calculative conflict-ridden regime of justice and the noncalculative regime of agape based on love. In this framework, the calculative regime of justice has civic conventions at its core and industrial, inspired, market, domestic, and fame conventions as ancillaries. While the regime of justice is associated with the undesired, unintended consequence of conflicts, the regime of agape constitutes a desirable unintended consequence. Our framework provides a microlevel understanding of disputes and their reconciliation, advances a diffused understanding of worth that ruptures the binary of legitimate or illegitimate actions, and delineates the significance of morality. Our study also contributes by explaining agape’s role in transformative service, particularly in health and caregiving.

This study enlists a transformative approach to mixed methods research in order to problematize what different methods can offer for expanding understandings of educator language attitudes and ideo...