Masters of Ceremonies. A design approach to participatory video

This paper presents an empirical work carried on by a group of design researchers with a small group of young between 16 and 23 years old based in a suburban area of the city of Milan. Through a process of self‐representation using participatory video practices and tools, the project aims at involving social groups who are often at the margins of society as young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET), or teenagers who are at risk of dropping out of school. In order to reach these groups, the collaboration with organizations and educators who are already active at a local level has been necessary. Participatory video is a process of self‐reflection and self‐narration in which designers act as mediators. We describe our research approach for community‐ centred design actions, which involve participatory video (PV), collaborative storytelling and practices to foster social innovation and conversational processes

Storytelling in design for social innovation and politics: a reading through the lenses of Hannah Arendt

The German philosopher Hannah Arendt believes that storytelling can be used to reopen the idea of public space and to facilitate dialogue/action amongst citizens aimed at attaining a more participative society. She regards storytelling as the only real political action, as it opens up the idea of public space where everybody is invited to take part in the discussion in which decisions upon the polis – the common realm – are taken together. Arendt goes back to Aristotle’s definition that man is a political animal, “zoon politikon”. To participate in the construction of the common realm and to be an active component of societal life is what defines the most profound human vocation. Arendt sees this as the meaning of the word “hero”; not a superman, but rather one who contributes to the construction of the public sphere. This paper further expands on the political implications of storytelling in social innovation, by taking into account the writings of Arendt as well as some experimentations of use of storytelling in social innovation taken place at international level

The relationship between polychronicity and social networks: A mixed-methods study of research and development professionals

How do knowledge workers interact with their colleagues when organizations increasingly ask them to work on multiple activities, projects and working spheres simultaneously? Given the importance of social networks for individual and organizational success, in this study we explore the relationship between individual preferences for engaging in multiple tasks simultaneously (individual polychronicity), the perception of the organization’s demands in terms of engaging in multiple tasks simultaneously (organizational polychronicity), and centrality in instrumental networks. Adopting a mixed-methods approach, we collected data from knowledge professionals in a research and development (R&D) unit. Our results show that both individual and organizational polychronicity were related to network centrality. However, the effect of individual polychronicity on instrumental network centrality was stronger, especially for advice-related interactions, suggesting that individual preferences matter more when it comes to knowledge-related interactions. Not only do we link polychronicity to a previously unexplored context, that is, social networks, but we also propose the use of a cultural toolkit perspective to explain how individuals differentially make sense of organizational temporal demands. Finally, we advance research on the antecedents of network centrality and contribute to the ongoing debate on the delicate balance between structure and individual characteristics

Storytelling in design for social innovation and politics: a reading through the lenses of Hannah Arendt

The German philosopher Hannah Arendt believes that storytelling can be used to reopen the idea of public space and to facilitate dialogue/action amongst citizens aimed at attaining a more participative society. She regards storytelling as the only real political action, as it opens up the idea of public space where everybody is invited to take part in the discussion in which decisions upon the polis – the common realm – are taken together. Arendt goes back to Aristotle’s definition that man is a political animal, “zoon politikon”. To participate in the construction of the common realm and to be an active component of societal life is what defines the most profound human vocation. Arendt sees this as the meaning of the word “hero”; not a superman, but rather one who contributes to the construction of the public sphere. This paper further expands on the political implications of storytelling in social innovation, by taking into account the writings of Arendt as well as some experimentations of use of storytelling in social innovation taken place at international level.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT AND MULTITASKING BEHAVIORS: A MIXED-METHOD STUDY

This paper investigates how individual perceptions and attitudes about an organization influence multitasking behaviors in the workplace. While we know that individuals’ behaviors are influenced by the characteristics of their organizations (e.g., ICTs, physical layout), we still do not know much about how the way individuals interpret their organization influences their multitasking behaviors. We first hypothesize that individual perceptions of organizational preferences for multitasking (i.e. organizational polychronicity) have impacts on actually enacted multitasking behaviors. We also hypothesize that the attachment to the organization (i.e. organizational identification) moderates the above relationship. We conducted a mixed method study in two knowledge intensive organizations and collected data through a survey, diaries, and semi-structured interviews. Our findings support the first hypothesis but not the moderating role of organizational identification. However, this latter seems to be directly related on how much a person is willing to work on different activities, but not on how much she interrupts others or accepts being interrupted. Further, our study suggests that not only the organizational context should be investigated in the study of multitasking behaviors, but also the larger work context, including the individuals’ professional communities

Atlantic wonder. Exploring nature and design in Madeira island

This paper describes and reflects upon the experience of the first international summer school “Atlantic Wonder” (SSAW18) happened in Madeira last July 2018. This event was the first experiment of a wider research that pretends to understand how Design can contribute to the preservation of natural resources and ecosystems. This summer school was designed with a complex programme using a series of different tools and approaches (i) to tackle the lack of a conversation and culture on a local level recognising Nature as one of the main resources; (ii) to put in dialogue an international design group of participants with local experts working in the fields of biology, botany, geology, agronomy and sustainable development; (iii) to experiment a new design driven, Nature-led approach. The SSAW18 allowed cross fertilization and interdisciplinary responses that in the end of the experiment resulted to be collaborative, novel and inspiring.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Algorithms and their Affordances: How Crowdworkers Manage Algorithmic Scores in Online Labour Markets

On online labour platforms, algorithmic scores are used as indicators of freelancers\u27 work quality and future performance. Recent studies underscore that, to achieve good scores and secure their presence on platforms, freelancers respond to algorithmic control in different ways. However, we argue, to fully understand how freelancers deal with algorithmic scores, we first need to investigate how they interpret scores and, more specifically, what scores can do for them, i.e., perceived algorithmic affordances and constraints. Our interviews and other qualitative data collected with knowledge intensive gig workers on a major platform allow us to explain how the perceived affordances of algorithms (i.e., barrier, individual visibility, self-extension, rule of the game) act as mechanisms that explain different behavioural and emotional responses over time. Our work contributes to the current debate on the positive and negative consequences of algorithmic work by portraying the fundamental role paid by the individual interpretation of algorithmic scores and by integrating the affordance perspective into our understanding of algorithmic work

The interplay between organizational polychronicity, multitasking behaviors and organizational identification: A mixed-methods study in knowledge intensive organizations

This paper investigates how individual perceptions and attitudes about an organization influence multitasking behaviors in the workplace. While we know that individuals are significantly influenced in their behaviors by the characteristics of their organizations (e.g. ICTs, organizational structure, physical layout), we still do not know much about how the way individuals interpret their organization influences their multitasking behaviors. Thus, we specifically hypothesize that the individual perception of the organizational preferences for multitasking (i.e. organizational polychronicity) engenders the actual multitasking behaviors that an individual enacts in the workplace. We also hypothesize that the attachment to the organization (i.e. organizational identification) moderates the above relationship. We conducted a mixed method study in two knowledge intensive organizations (an R&D unit and a university department) and collected data through a survey, diaries, and semi-structured interviews. Our findings support the first hypothesis but not the moderating role of organizational identification. However, this latter is directly related to how much a person is willing to work on multiple activities on a single day. Further, our study suggests that not only the organizational context should be investigated in the study of multitasking behaviors, but also the larger work context, including the individuals’ professional communities. We conclude with a discussion of theoretical and practical implications as well as methodological reflections on mixing methods in the study of multitasking in organizations

Collaboration and Identity Formation in Strategic Interorganizational Partnerships: An Exploration of Swift Identity Processes

We investigate how collective identity formation processes interplay with collaboration practices in an inter-organizational partnership promoting regional innovation. We found that initial collaboration challenges are dealt with by setting up an early “swift identity” which is associated with material artifacts to increase its strength and stability (“swift identity reification”). However, as the partnership evolves, the reified identity becomes misaligned with partners’ underdeveloped collaboration practices. To ensure realignment, new attempts at reification are performed, as partners buy time for learning how to collaborate. Our findings contribute to extant identity research by proposing alternative (i.e. “swift” and “reified”) mechanisms of identity formation in contexts characterized by both heterogeneity challenges and integration imperatives. They also integrate the debate about the role of identity formation in the evolution of interorganizational partnerships. For both literatures, we highlight the important role of materiality

Making Matters Worse by Trying to Make Them Better? Exploring Vicious Circles of Decision in Hybrid Partnerships

Our research is concerned with how and why vicious circles of decision occur in hybrid partnerships. The literature reports three types of decision dysfunctions that can alter the trajectory of multi-stakeholder collaborations: escalation of commitment, procrastination and indecision. While previous studies focused on one dysfunction at a time, we inquire about cases in which dysfunctions coexist and interact in the same partnership. Employing multiple sources of qualitative data, we conducted a longitudinal field study in a cross-sector partnership that co-created and managed a science park. We offer an in-depth account of ‘vicious circles of decision’ in which partners’ attempts to solve a dysfunction paradoxically led to the accumulation of additional dysfunctions. We explain that the process is more likely to happen when solutions are (1) conditioned by the very risk–opportunity tensions they try to solve and (2) inscribed in material artefacts for greater visibility. As well as augmenting the literature on hybrid partnerships, we contribute to the debate in organization studies about the evolution of collaborations within frames of concurrent risk–opportunity tensions and theorize about the role of materiality in such processes