Researching Innovation In search of the mother of invention in an academic culture of necessity

1. Researching InnovationIn search of the mother of invention in an academic culture of necessity Andrew Bengry-Howell, Rose Wiles Graham Crow, Melanie Nind

2. Case Studies • What is the process through which an innovation is developed? • How is it publicised, promoted and disseminated? • Who are the key ‘champions’? • Who are the ‘early adopters’? • Has it reached ‘breakthrough’ status? • What is the uptake: core/different discipline(s); transnational? • Has it been adapted? • Do innovators feel/claim a sense of ownership of the innovation? • To what extent does the innovation address important methodological issues/challenges

3. The Cases Online/Virtual ethnography … Netnography Robert Kozinets Child-led research … Children as Researchers Mary Kellett Creative methods … Lego Serious Play David Gauntlett

4. Methods (stage one) Semi-structured interviews: • Developers of the method/methodological approach • Champions/supporters of method/approach [2 per case] • Established academic in topic area [1 per case] • Early career user of method/approach [1 per case] • User from different discipline to the innovator [1 per case] • User from different country to the innovator [1 per case] • Author of book review [1 per case]

5. Methods (stage two) Systematic Review of Uptake: Social sciences’ bibliographic databases searched for published journal articles/conference papers, in which: • Method/approach is applied/adapted/discussed/ referred to/related book reviewed (b) Method/approach is specifically linked to innovators we are studying. (c) Innovators are not authors/co-authors, or otherwise linked to instance of uptake.

6. Necessity and Opportunity

7. Changed worldDevelopment of Internet/social media Global uptake in children’s rights/participation Interest in individual/identity Cultural shiftHow people form community/culture (CMC)More receptive to children’s rights/agency New methodologies; richer/deeper understandings NecessityAdapt research methods/techniques to online contextGive children valid research voice/encourage agencyLimitations of language-based methods/no reflection OpportunityAccess/utilise new social environment/forms of dataNew knowledge/understandings/insider perspectiveRicher/more reliable data: ‘what people really think’ KEY: Netnography… Child-Led Research… Creative Research Methods

8. Constituting the innovation • Name – ‘coining a phrase’ • Distinguishing it from other similar approaches • Tool for 21st Century – adapting/change • Addressing methodological limitations/problems • Addressing ethical issues • Richer/more authentic/valid/reliable data • Systematic/procedural approach – staged process

9. Preserving the innovation • Prescriptive: clear procedural guidelines (RK); specific training programme (MK); stage-process (DG) • Books (training manuals) • Teaching method to students; business clients (RK) • Comprehensive training programme for children and adults (MK) • Workshops: Learn about the process by doing the process (DG)

10. Uptake of Innovations Systematic Review of Literature

12. Mapping uptake Netnography Uptake: 42% applied; 9% adapted/Framing: 21% referred; 16% referenceAcademic Diffussion: 76% Marketing; 6% economics; 6% ICT; 5% SocSciGeographic : 40% USA; 28% Europe; 14% UK; 25 countries/5 continents Child-led Research 1% applied/Framing: 24% [referred]; 56% [referenced]; 14% [discussed] Academic Diffusion: 35% Education; 16% childhood studies; Social Science Geographic : 71% UK; 8% USA; 8% Australasia; 14 countries/4 continents Creative Research MethodsUptake: 8% applied [PG/ECR]/Framing: 41% referenced; 24% discussed Academic Diffusion: 32% media/com studies; 16% Education; 11% SocSci Geographic: 51% UK; 22% Europe; 16% Australasia

13. Factors impacting on uptake • Time • Timeliness • Support and championing • Accessibility and feasibility of uptake • Maturity of innovation • Dissemination and marketing

14. Is Innovation a good thing? Academic responses and reservations

15. Academic Responses: Interviewees • Innovation important • People willing to push boundaries, take risks and experiment necessary • Cases seen as important methodological developments • But reservations about the drive for innovation in general

16. Reservations about Innovation • The nature of innovation in the social sciences: is anything really new? • Encouragement to disseminate developments at an early stage: fuelled by the impact agenda, publishers and social media • Codification of innovations – to make them accessible and transferable • The rush to uptake: researchers feel they should be using ‘new and exciting’ methods

17. “I worry about innovation being, well I worry about the politics of it. I worry about it being this big machine, you know, which the whole aim is to just churn out something just because it’s new and I don’t think, just because it’s new means it’s going to be any good … what I don’t like, what I suppose I would worry about, is people sort of thinking, here’s a new trendy, tricksy method, I’m just going to try it for fun, you know without thinking, now why would I do that, and what would it do and how would you understand the kind of data that might emerge from that”

18. Working Papers Nind, M., Bengry-Howell, Crow, G, Wiles, R. (submitted). Methodological Innovation and Research Ethics: Forces in tension or forces in harmony?, Qualitative Research. Wiles, R., Crow, G., Nind, M., Bengry-Howell, A. (in prep). But is it innovation?: The development of novel methodological approaches in qualitative research. Crow, G., Nind, M., Wiles, R., Bengry-Howell, A. (in prep). The challenge of studying innovation: Critically examining the concept of innovation in social science research. Bengry-Howell, A., Wiles, R., Crow, G., Nind, M. (in prep). Researching innovation: In search of the mother of invention in an academic culture of necessity