More with Less: Sensemaking of Controversies in Youth Care Reforms

In Chapter 9, von Raesfeld and van der Helm develop a framework to analyze sensemaking of controversies in innovation processes. Drawing on their framework, the authors investigate the controversies that arise when a group of municipalities used several management instruments to enhance innovation in a youth care system. Municipalities and care providers socio-cognitively constructed controversies: however, the engagement in the controversies was only marginal. The authors claim that the combination of socio-cognitive construction and the limited engagement in controversies hindered innovation in youth care. Explanations for limited engagement are the use of espoused theories instead of theories in use, the uncontested position of power taken by the municipalities, and the emergence of controversies that are not crucial to the actors.