¹London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK

Correspondence: J Rosenhead, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK. E-mail: J.Rosenhead@lse.ac.uk

Received May 2008; Accepted January 2009.

Abstract

This paper provides a particular perspective on developments in operational research (OR) over the past 50 years and attempts to pick out significant milestones in that trajectory. Emphasis is placed on the UK experience (rather than taking a supposed perspective independent of interactions with any specific social context); on the significance of techniques and where they came from; and on the role of social, political, intellectual, and economic factors in what has been happening to and within OR.