AUGLIERE, REED ALDEN; EDD
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, 1991
SOCIOLOGY, THEORY AND METHODS (0344); EDUCATION, TESTS AND MEASUREMENTS (0288);
INFORMATION SCIENCE (0723)
The phenomena of innovation and its spread have been scrutinized by social scientists
for several
decades now. This scholarship has yielded many important insights; it has, however,
also produced a
recognition that the dominant approach to research in this field, grounded in
what can be called the
diffusion model of individual adoption, has consistently failed to accommodate
individual differences in
the perception and utilization of innovation. In this paper we first develop
a phenomenology of
innovation and its spread, carried out along the dimensions of both historical
analysis and the immediate
givenness of empirical experience, and then we employ our phenomenological analysis
to demonstrate
how the failure of the diffusion model is a consequence of the Realist philosophical
assumptions which
underlie it. We go on to articulate an entirely new approach to the theory and
measurement of innovation:
the centration model of individual inclination. Our model, grounded in the principles
of radical
phenomenology, begins with the notion that all experience--including the experience
of innovation--can
be conceived as a succession of semantically-significant representations in
the consciousness of each
individual. Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative procedures
we are able to map these
representations--or mental 'images'--to a multi-dimensional coordinate space,
where measures of the
semantic 'distance' between subjectively-held meanings can be taken. Over-time
changes in such
individual 'inclinations' are the new measure of innovation and its spread.
We demonstrate the application
of these techniques using longitudinal data collected from a higher education
site, where efforts to
implement computer-network innovation have been underway for the past three
years. By challenging
the Realist philosophical assumptions upon which the dominant diffusion model
is built, the centration
model yields much more precise representations of subjective experience, allowing
researchers to
discover the presence of innovation, to identify individuals or groups whose
'images' of innovation are
more or less similar, and to chart over-time changes in the 'distance' between
social actors. In this way,
the new model stimulates new thinking about innovation as a process and promotes
improved planning,
execution, and assessment of implementation efforts.
Social
Systems Simulation Group
P.O. Box 6904 San Diego, CA 92166-0904 Roland Werner, Principal Phone/FAX (619) 660-1603 |