The dog that didn’t bark: The unrealised social agenda of operational research

Present-day societies are dominated by problems which do not recognize organisational boundaries. Arguably their effects are more significant, and their resolution more intractable, than the issues which fall within the remit of individual organisations, whether private or public. These societal questions have scarcely been addressed by Operational Research. Why? It is argued that there has been a failure both of ambition and of methodology. In particular, OR’s dominant paradigm has been steadfastly managerialist, and incompatible with the more open flow of ideas and argumentation characteristic of democratic processes. Attention will be drawn to the recent emergence of an alternative paradigm, and to encouraging counter-examples related to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and to work with community groups.