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Integrating knowledge in the face of epistemic uncertainty : dialogically drawing distinctions
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Mengis, Jeanne, Nicolini, Davide and Swan, Jacky (2018) Integrating knowledge in the face of epistemic uncertainty : dialogically drawing distinctions. Management Learning, 49 (5). pp. 595-612. doi:10.1177/1350507618797216
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507618797216
Abstract
In this article, we contribute to a processual understanding of knowledge integration in interdisciplinary collaboration by foregrounding the role of dialogue in dealing with epistemic uncertainty. Drawing on an ethnographic study of collaboration among scientists involved in developing a highly novel bioreactor, we suggest that knowledge integration is not a homogeneous process but requires switching between different knowledge integration practices over time. This is particularly notable in the case of ‘epistemic breakdowns’ – deeply unsettling events where hitherto-held understandings of the nature of problems appear unworkable. In such cases, it is not sufficient to deal solely with coordination issues; collaborators need to find ways to address generative knowledge integration processes and to venture, collectively, into the unknown. We demonstrate how this generative quest of knowledge integration is achieved through a dialogical process of drawing and testing new distinctions that allows actors to gradually handle the epistemic uncertainty they face.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor Q Science > Q Science (General) |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School > Innovation, Knowledge & Organisational Networks Research Unit Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School > Industrial Relations & Organisational Behaviour Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School |
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| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Knowledge management, Interdisciplinary research, Uncertainty, Dialogue | ||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Management Learning | ||||||||
| Publisher: | Sage Publications Ltd. | ||||||||
| ISSN: | 1350-5076 | ||||||||
| Official Date: | 1 November 2018 | ||||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 49 | ||||||||
| Number: | 5 | ||||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 595-612 | ||||||||
| DOI: | 10.1177/1350507618797216 | ||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
| Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights): | Posted ahead of print. Mengis, Jeanne, Nicolini, Davide and Swan, Jacky Integrating knowledge in the face of epistemic uncertainty : dialogically drawing distinctions. Management Learning, 49 (5). pp. 595-612. doi:10.1177/13505076. Copyright Sage Publications Ltd.. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.1177/13505076 | ||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
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