ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses historical sources and developmental links between group relations as a form of activity-based exploration and study and four types of sponsoring institutions that operate group relations conferences: research and evaluation, clinical, educational and professional development and spiritual. It argues that these four clusters of sponsoring institutions have each uniquely influenced the theory and practice of group relations, and that group relations is an object and a source of ambivalence in the "political spaces" of sponsoring institutions that leads "group relations" to be sources of both creativity and anxiety. Research institutions apply research and evaluation methods to fields that vary from social policy, production and delivery systems to role effectiveness and knowledge creation. In addition to developing learning-from-experience events, these institutions sometimes hope group relations conferences would reshape the political, cultural, economic, and social conditions of their societies.
