1,025 research outputs found
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Performative Work: Bridging Performativity and Institutional Theory in the Responsible Investment Field
Callonâs performativity thesis has illuminated how economic theories and calculative devices shape markets, but has been challenged for its neglect of the organizational, institutional and political context. Our seven-year qualitative study of a large financial data company found that the companyâs initial attempt to change the responsible investment field through a performative approach failed because of the constraints posed by field practices and organizational norms on the design of the calculative device. However, the company was subsequently able to put in place another form of performativity by attending to the normative and regulative associations of the device. We theorize this route to performativity by proposing the concept of performative work, which designates the necessary institutional work to enable translation and the subsequent adoption of the device. We conclude by considering the implications of performative work for the performativity and the institutional work literatures
The architectures of media power: editing, the newsroom, and urban public space
This paper considers the relation of the newsroom and the city as a lens into the more general relation of production spaces and mediated publics. Leading theoretically from Lee and LiPumaâs (2002) notion of âcultures of circulationâ, and drawing on an ethnography of the Toronto Star, the paper focuses on how media forms circulate and are enacted through particular practices and material settings. With its attention to the urban milieus and orientations of media organizations, this paper exhibits both affinities with but also differences to current interests in the urban architectures of media, which describe and theorize how media get âbuilt intoâ the urban experience more generally. In looking at editing practices situated in the newsroom, an emphasis is placed on the phenomenological appearance of media forms both as objects for material assembly as well as more abstracted subjects of reflexivity, anticipation and purposiveness. Although this is explored with detailed attention to the settings of the newsroom and the city, the paper seeks to also provide insight into the more general question of how publicness is material shaped and sited
Academic team formation as evolving hypergraphs
This paper quantitatively explores the social and socio-semantic patterns of
constitution of academic collaboration teams. To this end, we broadly underline
two critical features of social networks of knowledge-based collaboration:
first, they essentially consist of group-level interactions which call for
team-centered approaches. Formally, this induces the use of hypergraphs and
n-adic interactions, rather than traditional dyadic frameworks of interaction
such as graphs, binding only pairs of agents. Second, we advocate the joint
consideration of structural and semantic features, as collaborations are
allegedly constrained by both of them. Considering these provisions, we propose
a framework which principally enables us to empirically test a series of
hypotheses related to academic team formation patterns. In particular, we
exhibit and characterize the influence of an implicit group structure driving
recurrent team formation processes. On the whole, innovative production does
not appear to be correlated with more original teams, while a polarization
appears between groups composed of experts only or non-experts only, altogether
corresponding to collectives with a high rate of repeated interactions
The âcredibility paradoxâ in Chinaâs science communication: Views from scientific practitioners
In contrast to increasing debates on Chinaâs rising status as a global scientific power, issues of Chinaâs science communication remain under-explored. Based on 21 in-depth interviews in three cities, this article examines Chinese scientistsâ accounts of the entangled web of influence which conditions the process of how scientific knowledge achieves (or fails to achieve) its civic authority. A main finding of this study is a âcredibility paradoxâ as a result of the over-politicisation of science and science communication in China. Respondents report that an absence of visible institutional endorsements renders them more public credibility and better communication outcomes. Thus, instead of exploiting formal channels of science communication, scientists interviewed were more keen to act as âinformal risk communicatorsâ in grassroots and private events. Chinese scientistsâ perspectives on how to earn public support of their research sheds light on the nature and impact of a âcivic epistemologyâ in an authoritarian state
When Models Interact with their Subjects: The Dynamics of Model Aware Systems
A scientific model need not be a passive and static descriptor of its
subject. If the subject is affected by the model, the model must be updated to
explain its affected subject. In this study, two models regarding the dynamics
of model aware systems are presented. The first explores the behavior of
"prediction seeking" (PSP) and "prediction avoiding" (PAP) populations under
the influence of a model that describes them. The second explores the
publishing behavior of a group of experimentalists coupled to a model by means
of confirmation bias. It is found that model aware systems can exhibit
convergent random or oscillatory behavior and display universal 1/f noise. A
numerical simulation of the physical experimentalists is compared with actual
publications of neutron life time and {\Lambda} mass measurements and is in
good quantitative agreement.Comment: Accepted for publication in PLoS-ON
Bottom-up Infrastructures: Aligning Politics and Technology in building a Wireless Community Network
Contemporary innovation in infrastructures is increasingly characterized by a close relationship between experts and lay people. This phenomenon has attracted the attention from a wide range of disciplines, including computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW), science and technology studies (S&TS), organization studies and participatory design (PD). Connecting to this broad area of research, the article presents a qualitative case study concerning the building and maintenance of a grassroots, bottom-up information infrastructure in Italy, defined as wireless community network (WCN). Methodologically, the research is based on qualitative interviews with participants to the WCN, ethnographic observations and document analysis. The aim of the article is to understand the alignment between the technical work implied in building this bottom-up infrastructure and the political and cultural frameworks that move people to participate to this project. Relying on the field of science & technology studies, and in particular on the notions of âinverse infrastructureâ and âresearch in the wildâ, we disclose the WCNâs peculiar innovation trajectory, localized outside conventional spaces of research and development. Overall, the presentation of the qualitative and ethnographic data allows to point out a more general reflection on bottom-up infrastructures and to enrich the academic debate concerning bottom-up infrastructuring work and other similar typologies of collaborative design projects in the domain of infrastructures
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Business Model Innovation: How Iconic Business Models Emerge
Despite ample research on the topic of business model innovation, little is known about the cognitive processes whereby some innovative business models gain the status of iconic representations of particular types of firms. This study addresses the question: How do iconic business models emerge? In other words: How do innovative business models become prototypical exemplars for new categories of firms? We focus on the case of Airbnb, and analyze how six mainstream business media publications discussed Airbnb between 2008 and 2013. The cognitive process whereby Airbnbâs business model became the iconic business model for the sharing economy involved three phases. First, these publications drew on multiple analogies to try to assimilate Airbnbâs innovative business model into their existing system of categories. Second, they developed a more nuanced understanding of Airbnbâs business model. Finally, they established it as the prototypical exemplar of a new type of organization. We contribute to business model research by providing an elaborated definition of the notion of the iconic business model which is rooted in social categorization research, and by theorizing the cognitive process that underpins the emergence of iconic business models. Our study also complements research on the role of analogical reasoning in business model innovation. Finally, we complement the market categorization literature by documenting a case of the emergence of a prototypical exemplar
Action on the social determinants for advancing health equity in the time of COVID-19: perspectives of actors engaged in a WHO Special Initiative.
Since the 2008 publication of the reports of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health and its nine knowledge networks, substantial research has been undertaken to document and describe health inequities. The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need for a deeper understanding of, and broader action on, the social determinants of health. Building on this unique and critical opportunity, the World Health Organization is steering a multi-country Initiative to reduce health inequities through an action-learning process in 'Pathfinder' countries. The Initiative aims to develop replicable and reliable models and practices that can be adopted by WHO offices and UN staff to address the social determinants of health to advance health equity. This paper provides an overview of the Initiative by describing its broad theory of change and work undertaken in three regions and six Pathfinder countries in its first year-and-a-half. Participants engaged in the Initiative describe results of early country dialogues and promising entry points for implementation that involve model, network and capacity building. The insights communicated through this note from the field will be of interest for others aiming to advance health equity through taking action on the social determinants of health, in particular as regards structural determinants
Smart cities, social media platforms and security: online content regulation as a site of controversy and conflict
Abstract Smart, technologically managed city-regions are one of the main characteristics of the contemporary world. Since the attack to the Charlie Hebdo offices, city-regions and social media digital technologies have increasingly been changing the definition of 'territory of security' and 'security governance'. What are the characteristics of the security architecture created by the interaction of smart city-regions and digital technologies? Drawing from Actor-Network theory and Science and Technology Studies, we provide an empirical account of the shape of this new territory, by presenting a study of the controversy concerning security and social media in UK, the role of cities in this changed security space, and how social sciences can help better understand and respond to the opportunities and threats of smart cities
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