The Path of Academic Innovation: Research, Development, and Impact

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