Failure through Success

Co-construction Processes of Imaginaries (of Participation) and Group Development

Bibliographic Data

ID5336975
AuthorsAnna Froese (0000-0001-7432-7354, “Science Policy Studies” Research Group, WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Berlin, Germany, corresponding author), Natalie Mevissen (“Science Policy Studies” Research Group, WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Berlin, Germany)
Year2020
Volume45
Issue3
Pages455-487
Publication date2020-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience Technology & Human Values (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0162-2439 • E-ISSN: 1552-8251
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0162243919864711
OpenAlexW2964021477
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited55

Participation is an important but little understood concept in science and innovation. While participation promises the production of new knowledge, social justice, and economic growth, little research has been done on its contribution to innovation processes at the group level. The concept of imaginaries can provide a window into these processes. Adopting a micro-sociological perspective, we examined the interplay between imaginaries of participation and group development within a long-term ethnographic observation study of an initiative, Energy Avant-garde, as it pursued the development of a decentralized, self-contained, and entirely renewable energy system in one German region. We scaled down the macrolevel concept of imaginaries to the group level. We found that group imaginaries are a resource for bringing order to a group and that a group is a resource for creating, operationalizing, revising, and sustaining imaginaries. We describe a "failure-through-success" story: while imaginaries initially promoted group cohesion, creativity, and productivity, in later stages, these effects were impeded by group dynamics. We therefore distinguish between process imaginaries and outcome imaginaries and conclude that, inherently, participation must be managed and employed at the appropriate stages to make valuable contributions

Epistemology · Ethnography · Operationalization · Sociology · Climate Change Communication and Perception · Interdisciplinary Research and Collaboration · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance

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