Catalysts for change: pracademic roles and added value to social impact

Willem Elbers

Development in Practice, 2025, vol. 35, issue 2, 187-198

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to illuminate the debate on pracademic roles and added values in driving social impact within the field of development studies. I draw on a case study of myself, self-identifying as a pracademic, and my extensive involvement with the Liliane Foundation, a Dutch NGO. In my study, I identify five primary pracademic roles: theory-to-practice mediator, diplomat, empathetic listener, communicator, and critical friend. These roles aim to make academic content (knowledge, research, theories) available, accessible, findable, and acceptable to practitioners. My findings illustrate that the capacity to perform academic roles to a large extent underlies the ability to perform pracademic roles, providing insights into the necessary competences required for the latter. I find that by fulfilling a combination of academic and pracademic roles, impact is created in four areas: capacity building, practice and decision-making, organisational credibility and reputation, and organisational learning.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/09614524.2024.2436497

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