ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to argue for more investment in situated transformational praxis and conducive institutional innovation built on a genuine appreciation of systems thinking in practice. Systems thinking can be utilized to facilitate institutional innovation as well as changes in society. Systemic inquiry is a praxis innovation for which there is a need and which has the potential to partly displace 'projects' as an institution and/or at times accompany projects and programs as a meta-framing institution. Systemic development, a praxis innovation pioneered by the Hawkesbury group is another essentially constructivist approach to systemic praxis, developed in order to overcome the mismatch between what was and what could be in agriculture and rural development. A key challenge for future studies and practice is to gain a much clearer understanding of the political economy of the conservatism and identify ways of institutionalizing systemic learning as part and parcel of the research and innovation process.
