Measuring a moving target - Innovation studies in practice

Beschrijving

This paper is inspired by an innovation studies programme organized by Loet Leydesdorff and the
author herself in 2002 [1]. Departing from a holistic and system-theoretical view of academic
knowledge production, the main idea was to bridge conceptual views on innovation and concrete
empirical ways to ‘measure the knowledge base’.
In the last decades, academia has fundamentally changed, not mainly in its essence (the fact that
we think), but rather in the practice (the way we organise our thinking). By taking an evolutionary
perspective, with the ongoing growth of the science system, we observe more differentiation, both in terms of disciplines (cognitive level) as well as institutions (organisational level) [2]. Nonetheless, as
it happens in the evolution of any complex system (and we consider the science system as one) we
also observe counteracting trends. For instance: the emergence of new intermediaries and new
coordinating levels. One of them are research infrastructures. Their role has changed from being
purely supportive (e.g. responding to new technologies needed to perform research activities), to
increasingly becoming co-creators in the knowledge production process [3].
This paper investigates to which extent these new coordinating structures can be captured in
quantitative studies. It does so, by using concrete examples: (a) the DARIAH European Research
Infrastructure; (b) a research data archive; and (c) the ‘Open Science movement’ (including Research
Data management). Looking at ‘measuring attempts’ around these examples, this paper touches
upon the fundamental questions of why, what and how aspects of knowledge production can and
should be measure, using the perspective of the ‘Measuring the Knowledge Base’ programme
introduced at the start of the paper.

Periode	27 mei 2024 → 29 mei 2024
Evenementstitel	Workshop: Philosophy of Science Meets Quantitative Studies of Science
Evenementstype	Workshop
Locatie	Turin, ItaliëToon op kaart
Mate van erkenning	Internationaal