Aalto University School of Business, Finland

Objects as means of sustainability knowledge co-creation across the research-practice boundary

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Abstract

Tackling grand challenges calls for a systemic view that highlights opportunities for knowledge co-creation among researchers and practitioners. To explore how objects help to bridge the research-practice gap, this empirical study brings together academics, practitioners and consumers in the Finnish textile and fashion sector, two knowledge-sharing objects in this sector, and co-creation activity in the context of sustainability knowledge development. Our findings elaborate theory on the role of boundary objects both at the researcher-practitioner boundary and in the context of addressing grand sustainability challenges. First, objects can frame the process and pace of researcher-practitioner interaction. Second and at the same time, objects can broaden understanding of the target of knowledge creation and one’s domain of activity in relation to it. We suggest that boundary objects can be effective means of knowledge co-creation via four key qualities: interpretive flexibility, temporal framing, visual form, and activity domain flexibility.

Biography

Karelia is a 2nd year Doctoral Candidate in Organization and Management at the Aalto University School of Business. Her doctoral research draws on qualitative methods to explore knowledge creation towards sustainability in and among organizations and various stakeholder groups. She is fascinated by processes of people crossing knowledge boundaries – occupational, disciplinary, sensory, temporal – to organize more environmentally and socially resilient business practices. She explores this phenomenon in the context of the textile and fashion sector.

Karelia holds a master’s degree from Aalto University’s interdisciplinary Creative Sustainability program, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from McGill University with concentrations in political science and management. Since completing her bachelor’s degree, she has worked in Canada and in Finland in business and not-for-profit organizations in the banking, passenger rail, and cultural sectors. Her professional experiences range from marketing and communications to radio show hosting, to coordinating various CSR initiatives.