Part Special Issue Editorial: The process of OR

We came to be editing this part special issue of the Journal of the Operational Research Society (JORS) following an invitation from John Ranyard (the previous editor of JORS) who picked up on a point made by Gerald Midgley in a Viewpoint. Gerald argued that, to be worthy of publication, a practice paper should have some theoretical content—but this does not have to be ‘grand’ theory, making general claims about human nature or society, just theory about the application of OR methods in interventions. This is essentially theory about the process of OR: about how people can make meaningful value and boundary judgements, negotiate stakeholder participation, deal with power relationships, structure messy situations, engage with multiple viewpoints, address conflict, work on the choice of methods, develop strategies for the implementation of proposed solutions, etc. John asked Gerald if he would like to edit a part special issue on the process of OR, and then Gerald asked Paul Keys to share the honours as Paul had already produced a book on the subject.