ABSTRACT
The framework for researching innovation developed in Chapter 1 presumes an active, interventive role for the researcher. Innovation does not simply happen as a result of new policies; it involves people at all levels of human activity in experimentation, boundary crossing, collaborative negotiation and strategic opportunism. Researchers can play a crucial part. Social structures have in-built mechanisms that ensure their reproduction (Schön 1971) and at a time when technology is creating radical changes in many aspects of our lives, often in ways that seem beyond our control, it is important to design and explore divergent models of social practice integrated with research. The model is one of praxis – the integration of action with knowledge generation through a cyclical process of experimentation, evaluation and refi nement of new practices. In this chapter, I describe how I have used the framework to design research into prototypes of innovative practice. The importance of this approach in ensuring quality in research into innovation is theoretically justifi ed in Somekh and Saunders (2007).
