ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part presents the case studies of successful academic–practitioner partnerships and, in one case, practice. Together it represent more than 80 years of accumulated experience working in academic–practitioner relationships. The part shows that how the liminal experiences of apprentice researchers, whom Collins and McBain attempt to develop, continue through the academic's life. It describes the foundations of the Center for Effective Organizations approach to research and then explains how that approach is enacted in a particular research program, using complexity theory as the theoretical foundation to examine how organizations can "design for sustainable effectiveness." The part explores that they do make evident how much is going on in academic–practitioner collaboration. The partnerships in operation do not follow only one philosophical foundation, but many of them, though these foundations are somewhat consistent with each other.
