How i enjoyed this chapter. It resonates deeply with what i have experienced and gave food for thought for work, where mainstreaming is what we aim to achieve. In current post - we want women and minorities to be mainstreamed into the scientific community. In possible future post - we want agricultural biodiversity to be mainstreamed into policies for sustainable food systems.
I wish there were another chapter on HOW to get the idea into good currency. The vanguard roles (artist, prophet, muckraker, utopian) give a hint of potential ways forward. Biodiversity benefits from a critical mass of science in support of it. Gender maybe benefits more from the utopian role. Both can benefit from the artist role - suggesting new discourses.
I love the idea of the intermediate theory: "theory that serves as a bridge connecting views of particular situations to what we will later call paradigm of change". This links in to a post below on Hofstadter's theory of understanding - with a seething mass of possible connections, the strongest connections are with those close to what we already understand (and for understand i think we have to add 'believe').
I find Schon optimistic. it pushes the envelope and the idea of policy as process means that there are opportunities out there to influence policy even if formal policy structures are not favourable. Local, social discovery is where it is at.
Funny this chapter is called Government as a learning system - that is the last of the messages I am getting from it. I am getting rather a message about how to achieve change through learning despite lagging government policies.