Trading zones

Michael E. Gorman, UVACommunities of IntegrationWaterloo, Ontario 6/9/14

Michael E. Gorman

Problem of Incommensurability(Kuhn)

• Occurs when participants from different disciplines and cultures disagree over what is a problem worth solving, the proper way to solve it and even what constitutes data

• Stakeholders may disagree on the nature and scope of the system under study and the goals of management, including which stakeholders matter

Michael E. Gorman

Trading Zone as solution to incommensurablity

• Galison-- scientists and engineers develop an interlanguage (jargon to pidgin to creole) to communicate when designing systems like radar, particle accelerators, and emerging technologies like NBIC

• Sketches , models, equations could also serve as creoles

Trading zones allow exchanges across different mental models, values and languages

Interactional experts can act as trade agents or even catalysts in trading zones

• They gain interactional expertise, or the ability to ‘talk the walk’ of another discipline/culture

• IBM emphasizes T-shaped expertise Interactional

ExpertiseContributory

Michael E. Gorman

New normal Science+

New Paradigm?

(By Dean—top-down)

NSF proposal

Adapted from Collins, Evans & Gorman

Actors and actants in the Communities of Integration Trading Zone

Superordinate Goals?

SEE

Toolbox

Other philosophical approaches

Conation

STIR

Sustainability as an example of a superordinate goals that will require collaboration across apparent incommensurabilities

• Climate change• Resource exhaustion• Increasing income and opportunity disparity• Preservation of ecosystem

complexity/diversity

Trading zones and Communities• Integrate with Toolbox• Do STIR integrators create micro trading

zones?• What is the role of TZs in Convergent

Technology Engagement?

CTE: socio-

technical integration space

Governmental bodies

Commercial tech

startups

Consulting:De

Proeffabriek

NGOs & potential

users

S.NET: dialogue

researcher & practitioner community

Science and engineering

societies

Nano laboratorie

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