Show me your brain! Stories of interdisciplinary knowledge creation in practice. Experiences and observations from Aalto Design Factory, Finland.
Uusitalo, Ulla-Maija (2015-08-20)
Väitöskirja
Uusitalo, Ulla-Maija
20.08.2015
Lappeenranta University of Technology
Acta Universitatis Lappeenrantaensis
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-265-820-3
https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-265-820-3
Tiivistelmä
This dissertation centres on the themes of knowledge creation, interdisciplinarity and
knowledge work. My research approaches interdisciplinary knowledge creation (IKC) as
practical situated activity. I argue that by approaching IKC from the practice-based
perspective makes it possible to “deconstruct” how knowledge creation actually happens, and
demystify its strong intellectual, mentalistic and expertise-based connotations. I have rendered
the work of the observed knowledge workers into something ordinary, accessible and
routinized. Consequently this has made it possible to grasp the pragmatic challenges as well
the concrete drivers of such activity. Thus the effective way of organizing such activities
becomes a question of organizing and leading effective everyday practices. To achieve that
end, I have conducted ethnographic research of one explicitly interdisciplinary space within
higher education, Aalto Design Factory in Helsinki, Finland, where I observed how students
from different disciplines collaborated in new product development projects. I argue that IKC
is a multi-dimensional construct that intertwines a particular way of doing; a way of
experiencing; a way of embodied being; and a way of reflecting on the very doing itself. This
places emphasis not only the practices themselves, but also on the way the individual
experiences the practices, as this directly affects how the individual practices.
My findings suggest that in order to effectively organize and execute knowledge creation
activities organizations need to better accept and manage the emergent diversity and
complexity inherent in such activities. In order to accomplish this, I highlight the importance of understanding and using a variety of (material) objects, the centrality of mundane everyday
practices, the acceptance of contradictions and negotiations well as the role of management
that is involved and engaged. To succeed in interdisciplinary knowledge creation is to lead
not only by example, but also by being very much present in the very everyday practices that
make it happen.
knowledge work. My research approaches interdisciplinary knowledge creation (IKC) as
practical situated activity. I argue that by approaching IKC from the practice-based
perspective makes it possible to “deconstruct” how knowledge creation actually happens, and
demystify its strong intellectual, mentalistic and expertise-based connotations. I have rendered
the work of the observed knowledge workers into something ordinary, accessible and
routinized. Consequently this has made it possible to grasp the pragmatic challenges as well
the concrete drivers of such activity. Thus the effective way of organizing such activities
becomes a question of organizing and leading effective everyday practices. To achieve that
end, I have conducted ethnographic research of one explicitly interdisciplinary space within
higher education, Aalto Design Factory in Helsinki, Finland, where I observed how students
from different disciplines collaborated in new product development projects. I argue that IKC
is a multi-dimensional construct that intertwines a particular way of doing; a way of
experiencing; a way of embodied being; and a way of reflecting on the very doing itself. This
places emphasis not only the practices themselves, but also on the way the individual
experiences the practices, as this directly affects how the individual practices.
My findings suggest that in order to effectively organize and execute knowledge creation
activities organizations need to better accept and manage the emergent diversity and
complexity inherent in such activities. In order to accomplish this, I highlight the importance of understanding and using a variety of (material) objects, the centrality of mundane everyday
practices, the acceptance of contradictions and negotiations well as the role of management
that is involved and engaged. To succeed in interdisciplinary knowledge creation is to lead
not only by example, but also by being very much present in the very everyday practices that
make it happen.
Kokoelmat
- Väitöskirjat [1105]