A story of nimble knowledge production in an era of academic capitalism

A rise of academic capitalism over the past four decades has been well documented within many research-intensive universities. Largely missing, however, are in-depth studies of how particularly situated academic groups manage the uncertainties that come with intermittent and fickle commercial fundin...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Theory and society 2021-06, Vol.50 (4), p.541-575
Main Author: Hoffman, Steve G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Artificial intelligence
Capitalism
Ethnography
Information sharing
Intelligence
Intermittent
Knowledge
Methodological problems
Philosophy of the Social Sciences
Production
Scientists
Social Sciences
Sociology
World problems
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A rise of academic capitalism over the past four decades has been well documented within many research-intensive universities. Largely missing, however, are in-depth studies of how particularly situated academic groups manage the uncertainties that come with intermittent and fickle commercial funding streams in their daily research practice and problem choice. To capture the strategies scientists adopt under these conditions, this article provides an ethnographically detailed (and true) story about how a single project in Artificial Intelligence grew over several years from a peripheral idea to the very center of an academic lab’s commercial portfolio. The analysis theorizes an epistemic form—nimble knowledge production—and documents three of its lab-level features: 1) rapid prototyping to keep sunk costs low, 2) shared search for “real world problems” rather than “theoretical” ones, and 3) nimble commitment to research problem choice. While similar forms of academic knowledge transfer have been lauded as “mode 2,” “innovative,” or “hybrid” for initiating cross-institutional collaboration and pushing science beyond disciplinary silos, this case suggests it can rely on fleeting attention to problems resistant to a quick fix.
ISSN:0304-2421
1573-7853
DOI:10.1007/s11186-020-09422-0