Barriers to change and identity work in the swampy lowland created by Nic Beech, Ingrid Kajzer-Mitchell, Cliff Oswick and Mike Saren

Our aim is to examine intractability in relation to processes of change. Drawing upon data gathered from workshops, documentary sources and follow-up interviews, we identify an apparent contradiction between accounts of the self as change-oriented and subsequent inaction. We argue that the dominant metaphor typically used to explain such contradictions – barriers to change – provides an inadequate characterization of change inactivity. We present an alternative way of thinking about change in which the issue of self-identity is central. In particular, we argue that the very way that expressly change-oriented participants protected their self-identity was (ironically) itself an impediment to change. Finally, we offer an alternative to the barrier metaphor – the swampy lowland – as a way of conceptualizing apparent intractability in change-oriented situations.