Innovation through withdrawal. Contribution to a sociology of detachment

To develop the understanding of innovation processes conceptualized in terms of asso- ciation through the "sociology of translation" (cf. actor-network theory) studies, this article analyses innovation processes in terms of dissociation and detachment mechanisms, exami- ning innovation through "withdrawal;" that is, innovation based on reducing or withdrawing use of a practice-"subtracting," "detaching"-a given artefact. Specifically, it focuses on the shift to farming techniques that have eliminated ploughing, bringing to light four major mechanisms constitutive of dissociation: centrifugal association; making entities and asso- ciations visible; making other entities and associations invisible; bringing together or "asso- ciating" new entities. The study helps refine our understanding of the detachment processes at work in innovation, shedding light in this particular case on transfers between public research institutes, industrial companies, farmers and citizens seeking to develop new farm production models.

Innovation in construction: a sociology of technology approach

An alternative approach to understanding innovation is made using two intersecting ideas. The first is that successful innovation requires consideration of the social and organizational contexts in which it is located. The complex context of construction work is characterized by inter-organizational collaboration, a project-based approach and power distributed amongst collaborating organizations. The second is that innovations can be divided into two modes: ‘bounded’, where the implications of innovation are restricted within a single, coherent sphere of influence, and ‘unbounded’, where the effects of implementation spill over beyond this. Bounded innovations are adequately explained within the construction literature. However, less discussed are unbounded innovations, where many firms' collaboration is required for successful implementation, even though many innovations can be considered unbounded within construction's inter-organizational context. It is argued that unbounded innovations require an approach to understand and facilitate the interactions both within a range of actors and between the actors and technological artefacts. The insights from a sociology of technology approach can be applied to the multiplicity of negotiations and alignments that constitute the implementation of unbounded innovation. The utility of concepts from the sociology of technology, including ‘system building’ and ‘heterogeneous engineering’, is demonstrated by applying them to an empirical study of an unbounded innovation on a major construction project (the new terminal at Heathrow Airport, London, UK). This study suggests that ‘system building’ contains outcomes that are not only transformations of practices, processes and systems, but also the potential transformation of technologies themselves.

[theoretical Construction In The Sociology Of Health: A Reflection On Its Trajectory].

The scope of this paper is to reflect on the theoretical construction in the constitution of the sociology of health, still called medical sociology in some countries. Two main ideas constitute the basis for this: interdisciplinarity and the degree of articulation in the fields of medicine and sociology. We sought to establish a dialogue with some dimensions - macro/micro, structure/action - that constitute the basis for understanding medicine/health in relation to the social/sociological dimension. The main aspects of these dimensions are initially presented. Straus' two medical sociologies and the theory/application impasses are then addressed, as well as the dilemmas of the sociology of medicine in the 1960s and 1970s. From these analyses the theoretical production before 1970 is placed as a counterpoint. Lastly, the sociology of health is seen in the general context of sociology, which underwent a fragmentation process from 1970 with effects in all subfields of the social sciences. This process involves a rethinking of the theoretical issues in a broadened spectrum of possibilities. The 1980s are highlighted when theoretical issues in the sociology of health are reinvigorated and the issue of interdisciplinarity is once again addressed.

[the Sociology Of Health In Brazil - The Creation Of An Identity].

This article analyzes the historical, social and cognitive dimensions of the sociology of medicine in the construction of its identity, from Wolf Lepenies' perspective. It is understood that the construction of an identity does not end with the first historical manifestations, but is consolidated when it is institutionalized and structured as a field of knowledge by creating its own forms of cognitive expression. The text is divided into three parts: in the first the precursors are presented, highlighting the role played by some travelers, naturalists and folklore scholars, followed by social physicians-scientists and the first social scientists (1940-1969). In the second part, aspects of the consolidation of the social sciences in health are presented at two significant moments, namely the 1970s and 1980s. In the third part, the issues raised by the field are addressed in general terms. It is considered that once the main structural stages are in place there is still a need for the formation of new generations of social scientists in health. It is also essential to disseminate scientific production and to ensure that the relations are studied in depth and institutionalized with the sociological matrices on the one hand and with the field of health on the other.

Economic performance of Brazilian manufacturing firms: a counterfactual analysis of innovation impacts

This article assesses if innovators outperform non-innovators in Brazilian manufacturing during 1996-2002. To do so, we begin with a simple theoretical model and test the impacts of technological innovation (treatment) on innovating firms (treated) by employing propensity score matching techniques. Correcting for the survivorship bias in the period, it was verified that, on an average, the accomplishment of technological innovations produces positive and significant impacts on the employment, the net revenue, the labor productivity, the capital productivity, and market share of the firms. However, this result was not observed for the mark-up. Especially, the net revenue reflects more robustly the impacts of the innovations. Quantitatively speaking, innovating firms experienced a 10.8-12.5 percentage points (p.p. henceforth) higher growth on employment, a 18.1-21.7 p.p. higher growth on the net revenue, a 10.8-11.9 p.p. higher growth on labor productivity, a 11.8-12.0 p.p. higher growth on capital productivity, and a 19.9-24.3 p.p. higher growth on their market share, relative to the average of the non-innovating firms in the control group. It was also observed that the conjunction of product and process innovations, relative to other forms of innovation, presents the stronger impacts on the performance of Brazilian firms.

Modern Society and Culture in Brazil The Sociology of Florestan Fernandes

The establishment of modern sociology in Brazil was part of a thoroughgoing modernization of the country that began in the 1930s and the years immediately following World War II. The founding of the University of Sao Paulo made possible the systematic training of scientists devoted to teaching and research and broadened the way learning was understood. Florestan Fernandes was the outstanding personality among the first social scientists that the university produced, and the picture of the Brazilian sociologist today is largely inspired by his career. Enthusiasm and scientific rigor were the hallmarks of his approach. His early work reflects intellectuals` shared belief in the power of ideas to regenerate the nation, freeing it from a past that they condemned. The mature reflection of his later works retreats from this optimistic view, recognizing the emergence of modern society in Brazil as a complex process with mixed results.

Out of the shadows: The critical sociology of sport in Australia, 1986 to 1996

The sociology of sport in Australia has reached a key point in its development. A critical tradition in the subdiscipline has been established over the last decade, but its intellectual and institutional progress has been uneven. This article briefly traces the emergence of critical sports sociology in a country outside the major centers in the UK and U.S., its break with functionalist approaches, and its attempts to overcome the neglect of local mainstream sociology. The authors proceed to examine (self-reflexively) the changes of theoretical direction and the new lines of research that are being explored in the field. A recent ''skirmish'' with narrative history over the preferred theories and methods in sports analysis is discussed as illustrative of the difficulties encountered by an energetic but small, dispersed and underorganized scholarly movement in Australia.

The new craft skills of engineering: The impact of innovation technology on engineering practices

This chapter explores the impact of innovation technologies such as simulation, modelling, and rapid prototyping on engineering practice. Innovation technologies help redefine the role of engineers in the innovation process, creating a new division of innovative labour both with and across organizations. This chapter also explores the boundaries of experimentation and inertia within particular domains of problem-solving to create new opportunities and value.

Concept of Customer Relationship Management as an example of innovation in banking sector

Banks that has introduced CRM system, had to make some difficult changes in their organization in order to become more customer oriented. Beside the pure CRM banks try to adopt other innovative tools related with the core CRM. Some of these solutions are constructed in such a way so that ensured could be also access to the information beside to bank’s organization.

Internet Geography: Spaces of Innovation

Information Society plays an important role in all kinds of human activity, inducing new forms of economic and social organization and creating knowledge. Over the last twenty years of the 20th century, large investments in telecommunication networks were made to approach economies and put an end to the asymmetries. The most isolated regions were the beneficiaries of this new technological investment’s wave disseminating trough the territories. The new economic scenarios created by globalisation make high capacity backbones and coherent information society polity, two instruments that could change regions fate and launch them in to an economic development context. Technology could bring international projection to services, products and could be the differentiating element between a national and an international economic strategy. So, the networks and its fluxes are becoming two of the most important variables to the economies. Measuring and representing this new informational accessibility, mapping new communities, finding new patterns and localisation models, could be today’s challenge. In the physical/real space, location is defined by two or three geographical co-ordinates. In the network/virtual space or in cyberspace, geography seems incapable to define location, because it doesn’t have a good model. Trying to solve the problem and based on geographical theories and concepts, new fields of study came to light. Internet Geography is one example. In this paper and using Internet Geography and informational cartography, it was possible to observe and analyse the spacialisation of the Internet phenomenon trough the distribution of the IP addresses in the Portuguese territory. This work shows the great potential and applicability of this indicator to regional development studies, and at the same time. The IP address distribution of Country Code Top Level Domains (.pt for Portugal) could show the same economic patterns, reflecting territorial inflexibility or, by opposition, new regional hierarchies. The spatial concentration or dispersion of top level domains seems to be a good instrument to analyse the info-structural dynamic and economic development of a territory, especially at regional level. At the same time it shows that information technologies are essential to innovation and competitive advantage.