NORSI Book Project – Call for abstracts
A NORSI Student and Alumni initative
Edward Elgar has manifested interest in publishing a NORSI research anthology illustrating the current trends in Nordic innovation research among younger scholars. Following the significant interest for such project expressed by both alumni and students, a volunteering effort to produce a draft book proposal by the summer has started. A tentative editorial team has been established, composed of four alumni volunteers, Stefania Sardo, Bisrat Misganaw, Erik Sæther and Beniamino Callegar. The intention is to capitalize on the diverse, plural nature of NORSI to deliver a rich, organic description of innovation and entrepreneurship processes from micro, meso and macro perspectives, in the context of a universal evolutionary view of society.
Theme: social aspects of innovation and entrepreneurship
Innovation and entrepreneurship are social phenomena, involving individuals, groups, organizations and institutions engaged in collaborative and conflictive dynamics in the context of a shared past and a contentious future. While isolating innovative and/or entrepreneurial elements for analytical purposes is possible, empirical experience shows continuity between them and so-called ordinary or adaptive processes: innovation and entrepreneurship are real phenomena animated by internal mechanisms, but their separation from other social elements is an analytical artifact. Although the distinction is initially necessary to identifying the specific field of research, innovation and entrepreneurship studies should strive to achieve relevance beyond such narrow confines, and contributing to our understanding of the social whole. The alternative appears to be a devolution into highly specialized yet contentious niches and schools, unable to constructively interact with each other, much less beyond the threshold of the discipline.
This call for abstracts invites NORSI members to help us move past such distinctions, and build a first research anthology leveraging our inherent pluralist approach. We invite you to analyze the shared social reality that includes, originates and absorbs innovation and entrepreneurship, and to share with us the results of your research, irrespective of the level of analysis, or the particular method and theoretical stance adopted.
From the micro perspective, we are particularly interested in the relational aspects acting as conditions, barriers and context to innovative and entrepreneurial processes, as well as the consequences of the latter on the former, in context of groups and organizations, and the form taken by social relations by the individuals acting through them.
Aggregating individual instances from a functional perspective, the meso level introduces considerations of roles, regulations, routines and cultural stratification, their emergence, reproduction and continuous change. Development straddles and ultimately redraws the social lines, beginning and ending at a significant distant from pure technological and/or managerial concepts.
Our focus on the macro level is on the relationship between established and emergent paradigms and systems on one side, and the protean nature of culture and society on the other. Of course, multi-level analysis, or contributions seeking to extend and/or challenge existing level-based conceptualizations are particularly welcome, in view of the slightly iconoclastic approach above described.
Practicalities
The CfA is open to all NORSI members, although the primary targets are alumni and late-stage PhDs. Doctoral students intending to contribute are invited to ask their supervisors for permission in order to avoid conflicts down the line. Faculty members are welcome to participate, although preferably through collaboration with a young NORSI scholar.
The abstract should be between 300 and 1000 words in length, and allow readers to fully grasp the proposed suggestion’s structure. The process of selection will take place according to the following order of criteria:
1. Engagement with the main theme;
2. Originality of the contribution;
3. Collaborative effort through the NORSI network;
4. Perceivable research quality.
The selection process will terminate by the end of June, with all potential contributors being privately informed of the results. Afterwards, a book proposal including such contributions will be sent to the interested editor at Edward Elgar. At the end of the review process, sometime after Summer, all contributors will be contacted with information regarding the outcome and expected deadlines for manuscripts delivery.
For all questions and comments, please write to Beniamino Callegari, with “NORSI book” in the subject. Address: callegari.ben@gmail.com
Deadline
15th of June
Thank you,
The editorial team
Beniamino Callegari
Bisrat Agegnehu Misganaw
Erik Andreas Sæther
Stefania Sardo
