Understanding the role of objects in cross-disciplinary collaboration

In this paper we make a case for the use of multiple theoretical perspectives – theory on boundary objects, epistemic objects, cultural historical activity theory and objects as infrastructure - to understand the role of objects in cross-disciplinary collaboration. A pluralist approach highlights that objects perform at least three types of work in this context: they motivate collaboration; they allow participants to work across different types of boundaries; and they constitute the fundamental infrastructure of the activity. Building on the results of an empirical study we illustrate the insights that each theoretical lens affords into practices of collaboration and develop a novel analytical framework that organizes objects according to the active work they perform. Our framework can help shed new light on the phenomenon, especially with regards the shifting status of objects and sources of conflict (and change) in collaboration. After discussing these novel insights, we outline directions for future research stemming from a pluralist approach. We conclude by noting the managerial implications of our finding

Public Collaboration Lab

This paper describes the exhibition that introduces the Public Collaboration Lab (PCL), a one-year research project that explores the potential for, and value of, strategic collaboration between design education and local government to better engage council staff and the citizens they serve, in the development and application of design-led approaches to social challenges and to inform policy. It displays a selection of practice-based PCL collaborative design engagement tools that provide a site for argument, debate and exchange between participants in the process of creative engagement. Taking these tools as a starting point, the mini-workshop explores the various definitions of such tools (thing, boundary object, cultural probe, etc.), discussing their role in participatory design research

Integrating individual knowledge into innovation processes of R&D alliance

Integrating individual knowledge into innovation processes of R&D allianc

Boundary Objects, \u201cTranslation\u201d and Institutional Work: \u201cConsuming History\u201d and \u201cA History of the World in 100 Objects\u201d

This paper analyzes the relationship between production and consumption in terms of relational materialism and performativity (Callon 1998; Latour 2005) in \u201ca posthumanist practice theory orientation\u201d (Nicolini 2012): (i) introducing the analogy of \u201cmaterial culture as text\u201d (Olsen 2013); (ii) and considering the practices of institutional work (Lawrence, Suddaby 2006) that connect \u201chuman and nonhuman actors\u201d (Carlile et al. 2013) with \u201cinstitutional dynamics in markets\u201d (Araujo et al. 2010; Dolbec, Fischer 2015). To investigate how things are transformed into (written) discourse and, in general, as the latter builds the relationship between things and texts (\u201ctextual approach to things\u201d: de Groot 2009; Olsen 2013), the work takes the form of a case study using an original project by the British Museum as revelatory incident (Belk 1988, 2006). The analogy with the \u201c(re)turn to things\u201d in the evolution of archaeological studies (Shanks, Tilley 1992; Olsen et al. 2012) allows you to reflect on a practice-based approach in marketing studies

Market system dynamics, “sociology of texts”, and materiality of the book: Venice and the Renaissance printing industry

1The case study, between historical institutionalism and sociology of translation, faces the evolution of the press and the emergence of publishing in Venice between 1490 and 1515. Adopting a market system dynamics perspective, the book as a “cultural artefact” is the unit of analysis in this study. The investigated phenomenon revolves around the entrepreneurial experience of Aldus Manutius and the cultural dynamics of that era, while observing the interweaving of different institutional logics and the emergence of market creation processes supported by forms of institutional work.openopenCrisci, FrancescoCrisci, Francesc

Integrating Tacit Customer Knowledge with Internal Knowledge: In-Progress Research into Customers as Members of Cyberinfrastructure Projects

This paper reports on in-progress research into the coordination of specialized knowledge for projects by “cyberinfrastructure centers” that provide infrastructural services to scientists conducting computationally intensive research. Specifically, we draw from a preliminary analysis of 51 interviews with senior personnel at 11 cyberinfrastructure centers to highlight three findings. First, members of two customer-facing cyberinfrastructure departments (Scientific Applications and Visualization) possess specialized “computational science knowledge,” while members of two “back-end” departments (Systems and Operations and User Services) possess specialized “infrastructural operations knowledge.” Second, the regular inclusion of front-end employees in back-end projects (and vice versa) has stimulated the development of knowledge coordination practices. Third, the need for Scientific Applications and Visualization Departments to coordinate knowledge with customers also has yielded a formalized approach in which an employee is physically embedded in a scientific project team and/or a member of a scientific project team is embedded in one of these departments

Infrastructures in Practice, Market Dynamics, and Historical Railways Tourism: The Appleton\u2019s Guide to the United States and Canada, 1879

This work historically analyses the infrastructural dynamics of the North American railway system and proposes a connection between the concepts of space, materiality and institutional dynamics which can be used for tourism management studies. The theory-building case study (in a grounded theory approach) is based on a BBC travel documentary on the Appleton\u2019s General Guide of 1879. Starting from the concepts of \u201cproduction of space\u201d and \u201csociospatial relations\u201d, the introduction of the specific material infrastructure dimension allows us: i) to pinpoint a theoretical framework over four levels (territory, place, scale, networks) in order to study the \u201cinstitutional dynamics of markets\u201d; (ii) and suggests a possible practice-based turn in destination marketing studies

Aesthetic objects, aesthetic judgments and the crafting of organizational style in creative industries

In this article, we conceptually engage with style as central to creative industries. We specifically argue that style is crafted into being via an interplay between aesthetic judgments and “aesthetic objects.” We define aesthetic objects as temporary, material settlements fueled by a continual sense of dissatisfaction, eventually resolved through relational engagements. These remain under aesthetic inquiry throughout the process of crafting, until brought to particular close. We elaborate our theorizing with a non-traditional exemplar of the Bride Dress in the preparation of a 2009 Jean-Paul Gaultier’s fashion show. Our subsequent contribution is a richer conceptual understanding of style, with a material, aesthetic engagement at its center. In addition, in foregrounding under-explored features (i.e., aesthetic judgments, crafting of physical materials), and introducing new concepts (i.e., aesthetic objects), we outline promising openings for and significant connections with scholarship on creative or fluid industries, style, and organizational identity