Giovan Francesco Lanzara
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262034456
- eISBN:
- 9780262332309
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262034456.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies
The book is an inquiry into how the potentially disruptive character and the restructuring potential of new technologies interact with the inherently conservative nature of social practices. At the ...
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The book is an inquiry into how the potentially disruptive character and the restructuring potential of new technologies interact with the inherently conservative nature of social practices. At the same time the book provides reflective insights on how the accomplishment of such primary research goal is contingent upon the researcher’s ability to reflect on his own methods and findings and reframe his own assumptions as the process of innovation unfolds. The book opens with a Prologue and is organized in four major Parts followed by an Epilogue. The leading idea is that in order to study innovation-in-practice as a phenomenon one must look at situations of discontinuity and rupture and explore them in depth, thus turning them into expanded worlds of meaning that offer unique possibilities for understanding and acting. The empirical base of the book is constituted by two extended field studies closely tracking design and innovation processes in distinct practice settings, music education and court trials. The research method is based on interpretive and reflective ethnography. The case analysis and findings are illustrated by means of theoretical narratives merging data and conceptual reasoning. Then, based on the interpretive analysis of the rich case study materials, and combining insights from organization studies, cognitive theory, phenomenology, information technology, design theory, philosophy and art, the book presents further inquiries into a variety of issues such as remediation, multiple representations, digital and visual objects, transient knowledge, tinkering, ontology, as well as the quandaries of the researcher when s/he engages in the practice of doing research.Less
The book is an inquiry into how the potentially disruptive character and the restructuring potential of new technologies interact with the inherently conservative nature of social practices. At the same time the book provides reflective insights on how the accomplishment of such primary research goal is contingent upon the researcher’s ability to reflect on his own methods and findings and reframe his own assumptions as the process of innovation unfolds. The book opens with a Prologue and is organized in four major Parts followed by an Epilogue. The leading idea is that in order to study innovation-in-practice as a phenomenon one must look at situations of discontinuity and rupture and explore them in depth, thus turning them into expanded worlds of meaning that offer unique possibilities for understanding and acting. The empirical base of the book is constituted by two extended field studies closely tracking design and innovation processes in distinct practice settings, music education and court trials. The research method is based on interpretive and reflective ethnography. The case analysis and findings are illustrated by means of theoretical narratives merging data and conceptual reasoning. Then, based on the interpretive analysis of the rich case study materials, and combining insights from organization studies, cognitive theory, phenomenology, information technology, design theory, philosophy and art, the book presents further inquiries into a variety of issues such as remediation, multiple representations, digital and visual objects, transient knowledge, tinkering, ontology, as well as the quandaries of the researcher when s/he engages in the practice of doing research.
Giovan Francesco Lanzara
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262034456
- eISBN:
- 9780262332309
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262034456.003.0002
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies
The different sections of Part I deal with theoretical and methodological issues related to how to do reflective research on innovation in real life practice settings. It sets up the frame to ...
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The different sections of Part I deal with theoretical and methodological issues related to how to do reflective research on innovation in real life practice settings. It sets up the frame to appreciate the field studies in Parts II and III. First, the ambiguous features of the practice setting in which innovation happens are discussed: the dynamic tension between stability and change, discontinuities, shifting and drifting phenomena, the gap between practice and method, the routine/background relationship, and the ambivalent role of the observer. The exposition relies on two illustrative metaphors: real-life practice as a swamp, and routine as a path in the wood. Then the main features of the design of a reflective inquiry are discussed, like first-order and second-order inquiry, backtalk and conversations, unremarkability. Finally, the idea of a theoretical narrative is articulated as a strategy to structure and interpret the findings of the field studies.Less
The different sections of Part I deal with theoretical and methodological issues related to how to do reflective research on innovation in real life practice settings. It sets up the frame to appreciate the field studies in Parts II and III. First, the ambiguous features of the practice setting in which innovation happens are discussed: the dynamic tension between stability and change, discontinuities, shifting and drifting phenomena, the gap between practice and method, the routine/background relationship, and the ambivalent role of the observer. The exposition relies on two illustrative metaphors: real-life practice as a swamp, and routine as a path in the wood. Then the main features of the design of a reflective inquiry are discussed, like first-order and second-order inquiry, backtalk and conversations, unremarkability. Finally, the idea of a theoretical narrative is articulated as a strategy to structure and interpret the findings of the field studies.
