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
s