Insiders and Outsiders: The Role of Human Agents and Networks in System Change

Abstract

This article focuses on the roles of insiders or outsiders in order to theorize the role that human agents play in systems change. It asks: (1) what strengths and weaknesses do insiders and outsiders have respectively as agents of change; and (2) what strategies are available to use these insights to increase, or to limit, the prospects of significant and lasting change? Drawing on an interdisciplinary range of scholarship, it develops a general theoretical framework for identifying the strengths and weaknesses of insiders and outsiders in terms of innovation (generating new ideas) and diffusion (promoting the adoption of new ideas). It identifies two strategies to leverage the strengths of both: (1) complexifying our understanding of change agents through identifying the special roles played by “insider–outsiders” and “outsider–insiders”; and (2) connecting insiders and outsiders through a process we refer to as “inside‐outside networked change.”