Innovations and Organization of Research Work
The group has two lines of research. The first line focuses on network interaction and learning in innovation processes, especially the conditions and means of producer-user collaboration. The second line of research focuses on the organization and transepistemic network collaboration of research groups, especially the transformation of university research in today's changing society.
The theoretical approach of the group is based on the constructivist sociology of science and technology (exemplified by actor network theory) and on activity theory. The group develops an interventionist and dialogist research approach based on multiple data. We use historical documents and interviews to reconstruct the historical trajectory of an innovation or a research group. Ethnographic data on work practices and interaction between partners is collected, and the results of the analysis are discussed collaboratively with the practitioners. On the one hand, this dialogue serves as discursive and pragmatic validation of the research; on the other hand it gives a means to the studied communities to reflect their activity and may help them to improve it.
Activities of the Group
The first studies carried out by the group focused on network formation, interaction and learning in different phases of the innovation trajectory. A book comparing six Finnish innovation processes ("Learning and the creation of novelty in innovation networks") was published in 1999.
The innovation studies currently underway in the group focus on the conditions of user-producer collaboration and the means of analysis of user activities. This research is funded by Finland's Ministry of Trade and Industry and is a part of the national technology research program "ProAct". The book "Health care as a challenge of new technologies" was published in 2003. It is based on the analysis of three health care innovations: IST wristcare (Sampsa Hyysalo), the Prowellness diabetes management system (Janne Lehenkari) and a brain imaging device called Neuromag (Mervi Hasu).
The relationship between university research and society is the focus of the project "Transformation of university research and innovative research environments." The transition that university research is undergoing is analyzed as a contradictory process involving various epistemic, moral and organizational problems and challenges. The studies focus on the work and development of research groups in three disciplines: plant biotechnology (Juha Tuunainen), linguistics and language technology (Tarja Knuuttila) and applied mathematics (Erika Mattila). The Academy of Finland has funded the project for three years (July 2000 to July 2003).
Most recently, new studies focusing on the open-source software development model have been initiated in the group. These studies analyze the development model of the Linux operating system kernel, on its usage in software design work and on the possibilities of its application to other fields of product design (Jussi Silvonen and Juha Siltala).
The research group is headed by professor Reijo Miettinen, who is Professor of innovations and research work at the University of Helsinki. The group is multidisciplinary: our one post-doctoral researcher and seven doctoral students have backgrounds in psychology, adult education, sociology, history and philosophy.
Members of the group
Mervi Hasu
Sampsa Hyysalo
Tarja Knuuttila
Janne Lehenkari
Erika Mattila
Reijo Miettinen (head of the group)
Juha Siltala
Jussi Silvonen
Juha Tuunainen
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