Meaning in the Making

Bildtext Bildtext Marcus Jahnke MEANING IN Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Design at HDK - School of Design and Crafts, Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts, University of Gothenburg THE MAKING Business & Design Lab is a centre of expertise and research in Design Management and is a collaboration between HDK-School of Design and Crafts and the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg – Introducing a Hermeneutic Perspective ArtMonitor Doctoral Dissertations and Licentiate Theses No 42 on the Contribution of Design Practice to Innovation ArtMonitor is a publication series from the Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts, University of Gothenburg ArtMonitor University of Gothenburg Konstnärliga fakultetskansliet Box 141 SE-405 30 Göteborg www.konst.gu.se Financed by VINNOVA, Project number 2007-00636 Linguistic editing: Jill Woodilla Photographs: Marcus Jahnke and Otto von Busch (when stated) Graphic design: Jonas Fridén & Milena Karlsson Printed by: Litorapid Media AB, Gothenburg 2013 © Marcus Jahnke 2013 ISBN: 978-91-979993-7-3 Abstract Title: Meaning in the Making: Introducing a hermeneutic perspective on the contribution of design practice to innovation Language: English Keywords: design, innovation, design management, hermeneutics, meaning- making, design thinking, design practice ISBN: 978-91-979993-7-3 This thesis is dedicated to my mother, Mildred Gille, an invis- 1 In recent years interest has grown in how design can contribute to innovation in ible mender by trade. Thank you for the privilege of growing business and society, such as through the management concept of design thinking. up in your atelier, in the middle of a practice that was never However, up-close studies on design’s contribution to innovation are still scarce. discussed, but with an impact that was clear in the faces of This may be one reason why rhetoric arguing the benefit of design in innovation con- the people who came and went: in their sad expressions when texts is often related to pervasive innovation concepts, such as idea generation and they left their torn or cigarette-burned favourite garment in problem-solving, rather than to concepts that capture tacit and embodied dimensions of design as an aesthetic practice. your care, and in their awestruck and grateful expression The purpose of this study is to develop an understanding of the contribution when, about a week later, they picked up the very same gar- of design practice to innovation. This has been achieved through an experimen- ment, searching for signs of the vanished hole or tear. Thank tal research-approach in which five designers, through different interventions, in- you mother, for letting me experience the magic that you could volved multi-disciplinary groups of non-designers in experiencing design practice achieve through your craft. “hands-on” in five "non-designerly" companies. The aim of the interventions was to strengthen the innovativeness of the organizations. The interventions have been studied through ethnographically inspired methods and an interpretative and reflex- ive methodological approach. In the interventions established product understandings in the companies were challenged, initially leading to friction. However, the immersion in design hands-on meant that established meaning-spaces were gradually expanded through processes of entwined conversation and hands-on making. In these processes new product understandings were developed through aesthetic deliberation and material practice, which in three cases lead to innovative concepts that could not have been developed within the meaning-space in the organization before the interventions. This study thus sheds light on how the emergence of innovative concepts can be understood as processes of meaning-making, and how design practice may provide processes for such innovation work in multi-disciplinary contexts. It also suggests 1. In Swedish ”konststoppning”. A beautiful illustration of the craft can be that when design practice is abstracted away, as is common in design thinking rheto- found in Isabelle Godfroy’s homepage www.stoppage-art.com. The blog Pa- ric, relevant dimensions of design’s contribution to innovation may be lost. risian Gentleman made a hommage to invisible mending when the last at- The main theoretical contribution is to show the relevance of hermeneutics as elier in Paris, Le Maison Perrin, closed in 2012. (http://parisiangentleman. an explicit concept for understanding the contribution of design practice to innova- co.uk/2012/01/11/invisible-mending-an-amazing-craft-under-threat/) The tion. This can be seen as establishing a missing link between design theory, design hommage contained a translation from the French Wikipedia site on invis- management studies and innovation management theory. Beyond articulating the ible mending. There are no entries on invisible mending in either the Swed- contribution of design practice to innovation, this thesis also supports the relevance ish or English speaking Wikipedia sites, a clear sign that that craft has all but of understanding meaning-making as central to innovation. vanished. CONTENTS contents The Design of the Study 107 The Practical Design of the Interventions 110 Abstract 10 Analysis of the Empirical Material 112 Writing About the Interventions 115 Acknowledgements 15 The Interventions 117 Introduction The Tranemo Workwear Intervention 119 Personal and Practical Background to the Study 19 The Alfa Laval Intervention 153 Contextual and Theoretical Background 26 The Kitchentech AB Intervention 187 Purpose and Research Questions 42 The Macro International AB Intervention 205 The Structure of the Thesis 45 The Floortech AB Intervention 245 A Mixed Media Methodological Approach 47 A Hermeneutic Perspective on the Interventions 271 The Methodological Approach 48 Before the Interventions 272 Practical Considerations Regarding the Researcher Role 62 During the Interventions: Meaning-Making through Conversation 278 Concluding Thoughts 64 During the Interventions: Meaning-Making through Making 293 After the Interventions 303 Interlude–The Story of an Emerging Something 65 Exploring a Hermeneutic Perspective in Relation to Theory A Reflection on the Pervasive Concept of Problem-Solving 69 in the Intersection of Design and Innovation 309 The Metaphor of Problem-Solving 69 The Expansion Characteristic of the Interventions 309 The Problem and the Expert 73 The Necessary Messiness of the Interventions 312 Limits of Problem-Solving 76 The Interventions as On-Going Conversations 315 Problem-Setting 78 The Emerging Something in the Interventions 319 Beyond the Problem 82 The Aesthetic Dimension of the Interventions 323 The Interventions as Processes of Organizational Bildung 328 Design as a Hermeneutic Practice 87 The Sociable Expertise of the Designers in the Interventions 332 Background to Hermeneutics in Design Theory 88 An Analysis of Donald Schön’s Reflective Practitioner 90 Concluding Discussion 339 Hans Georg Gadamer’s Historical Hermeneutics 91 The Findings of the Experimental Study 340 From Text to Action - Paul Ricoeur’s Critical and Poetical Implications of the Findings 346 Hermeneutics 94 Suggestions for Further Research 352 Paul Ricoeur’s Hermeneutics in Relation to Design Theory 98 Concluding Thoughts 356 Aesthetics and Meaning-Making 104 Conclusions 105 Afterwords 359 The Design of the Experimental Study 107 References 361 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Writing a thesis is a lonely endeavour at times. Had it only been this, research would not have been for me. But the many fantastic people I have met during the study, and those I have known since before the study and who have supported me along the way, more than com- pensate for this loneliness. First I wish to thank the two persons that have made this study possible. The thesis would never have seen the light of day, had it not been for the invaluable guidance and deep knowledge of my main supervisor, Ulla Johansson Sköldberg. I’m especially grateful for Ulla’s courage to let me wander, sometimes straying, always showing trust in my instincts – a quality in tutoring that has meant the world to me. I am equally indebted to Marie Loft for her fundamental impor- tance in developing the experimental approach, and for our collaboration throughout the study. I hope her huge relevance to the study shines through in the text. I have also been fortunate to have two other wonderful supervi- sors: Maria Elmquist, with her ability to tease out the essence of my thoughts especially when I needed it the most, and Håkan Ede- holt with his ability to challenge my assumptions by posing questions that provided necessary friction and inspiration. Between Ulla, Maria and Håkan I have had the perfect environment for my thoughts to develop. I also wish to offer my special gratitude to Jill Woodilla for her lan- 15 guage and writing support, and for cheering me on from the other being there with inspiration and moral support. side of the Atlantic, increasingly reminding me that, “a good disser- I also wish to thank the researchers and PhD colleagues at HDK: tation is a done dissertation.” Thank you Jill, without you I would Ariana Amacker, Henric Benesch, Lasse Brunnström, Kersti Sandin most definitely have been “lost in translation”. Bülow, Otto von Busch, Kajsa G Eriksson, Kristina Fridh, Thomas One reason for having so many to thank is that this study is a col- Laurien, Ulrika Wänström Lindh, Elisabet Yanagisawa Avén, laborative effort. I am indebted to the companies, and to their repre- and PhD colleagues at Chalmers University of Technology: Lisa sentatives Magnus Andersson, Klas Bertilsson, Max Larsson, Anders Carlgren, Thomas Hordern and Ingo Rauth, and Sara Ljungblad at Lindén, Mikael Lunneryd and Anders Pettersson, and of course all LOTS Design. others involved in making this study possible. I am equally indebted My first research context, and the reason for why I continued to the designers for sharing their deep knowledge, only a little of on to the PhD path is CFK, The Centre for Consumer Science at which a text like this can convey. Thank you Olof Kolte, Thomas the University of Gothenburg.

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