ABSTRACT
The A. K. Rice Institute, a national organization constituted at present by seven local centres in the United States, is concerned with the study of groups and institutions conceptualized as open systems. The work, which includes education, consultation and research, is based on a tradition which was developed in the Centre for Applied Social Research of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations of London under the leadership of the late Dr A. Kenneth Rice. A major part of the educational work of the A. K. Rice Institute is done through group relations conferences, which provide opportunities for the study of intragroup and intergroup processes in the here and now as they occur. The reflection which occurs is that of an important but limited aspect of society. The term reflected implies that the intergroup event functions as a kind of mirror which can be held up to society as a whole.
