In the coming days we will post some new information.
Innovation and Newness is on the agenda of dynamic, accelerating societies: In the discourse on innovation, anything „new“ mightily takes hold of society (macro level), organisations (mezzo level) and individuals (micro level).
Innovation is part of the political
agenda, and it is translated into the rationalities of institutions and
professions. Innovation and Newness also occurs in the fringe areas or
at the boundaries of what is perpetually accepted. As marginal and
different practice, something new breaches the daily routines of social
normality. Innovation and newness occurs as an alternative to existing
patterns; it appears as “otherness”, difference and aberration.
Newness and Innovation can be examined
in different perspectives – as relation between centre and periphery,
between rule and exception, or between incremental and radical change.
Given these different options, it is essential for any scientific
analysis of newness and innovation to deal with the fundamental
question: is “the new” really new or just occurring as new in the eye
of the beholder? Does it reappear from the unconscious, the waters of
forgetfulness – or it is new only, if it was never known before? What
is newness and innovation aiming at - at the material or immaterial, at
social structures or cognition?
An organizational learning perspective
on newness and innovation is aiming at the change potential of social,
organizational, discursive, more or less structured systems as cultural
and symbolic arrangements. Our understanding of newness and innovation
relates to discourses on newness, innovation, future, creativity and
design. In those discourses the following questions seem to be of
particular relevance: How is the pressure to change perceived and dealt
with? How is change reflected and planned? Who are the actors and what
are the relevant contexts of change? Which role do educational and
pedagogical approaches on change and transitions play in the discourses
on innovation and newness?
