ABSTRACT
Kuhn’s (1970) classic work on the dynamics of scientific revolutions and paradigm shifts can easily be read as a tale about the recurrent conflict among new and conventionalized metaphoric models of reality. Metaphoric models that once inspired creative theoretical innovations and engendered radically new ways of thinking about a given domain have a disconcerting tendency to become vehicles of conformity and congealed conventions. During such transformations, the practitioners of the established metaphor seldom recognize the implicit constraints placed on their creative horizons. The very qualities that allow the metaphor to captivate a scientific community eventually sow the seeds of the metaphor’s own demise. Once the revolutionary metaphoric model becomes institutionalized as a system of “normal” scientific practices, the stage is set for a new, seemingly more innovative and productive metaphor to gain advocates and to inspire the inevitable challenge to the disciplinary status quo.
