In response to David Sless' history of institutional hurdles I'm sure we all can provide crazy examples of how thick-thinking has got in our way.
Like all case-studies, these examples are fascinating but seldom instructive in general. Yes, I can see how such irritants might well have driven David's research outside the "soft" home of academia but were they more than irritants?
Remembering that "scandal" means "obstacle" as does "problem" as does "object", the stumbling blocks put in the way are usually part of our own making and they illustrate the "how" as well as the "way" of our going.
Which is to say: the outcome is not directly related to the previous circumstances; any change can make us feel the world is "different" and now we are in the "promised land".
Another danger, within a defined community, is the happy agreement about the obstacles. We all laugh when we hear David's tale of the Macintosh and how he got what he wanted by not calling it a "computer".
While I can give opposing examples where the obstacles were put in place by the professional designers and the "non-academics", these are not often laughed at within the design community. For examples, designers refusing to support the integration of the Internet into design teaching because "the World Wide Web" has nothing to do with Design. And, the refusal to buy Macintosh computers and laser printers because they were not typesetters is pretty funny.
These examples, along with David's, are merely illustrations of the general features of Innovation Uptake. A serious analysis of where David's research fitted (fits) in terms of Innovation models would provide a good basis for prediciting the likey fit between his ideas of a centre and an existing institution.
Beyond that, one needs to look at the research "style" of the chief researchers. I might like to work in free opposition with the status quo. I might prefer to work from the outside or the inside. Whatever, a survey of my attitudes doesn't need to go much further than a good read of Dilbert to help determine where I might best work.
keith russell
OZ newcastle
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