Does management values trump professional? Researching innovation to enhance best practices in child protection  

I have chosen to supply complexity theory with some of Bourdieu’s toolbox based on the notion of habitus, social fields and symbolic power or capital. The dissipative structures operate within social fields with certain habitus which may not be stable over time. What is at stake is attractors or distinctions that may represent different kinds of symbolic capital to agents within the social fields in operation. That means if management promotes change and innovative work, they also have to support and enhance the allocation of resources as time, competence and money to these activities. If not they are not in effect promoting the distinctions or the symbolic capital at stake which is about meeting needs and coping with fears of futures among those involved. At the bifurcation point the dissipative structures (habitus with a certain hierarchy of distinctions defended) lead to a choice among attractors that lead in certain directions – confirming the value positioning of the agents involved.