Social dynamics of innovation networks

This is not a typical research paper but a reflexive piece which looks at the microprocesses of how social science is developed. I went through such microprocesses together with Paul working on our SDIN (Social Dynamics of Innovation Networks) project. This paper discusses the SDIN project as a case study of those microprocesses. At the same time, these microprocesses demonstrate the theoretical points that Paul and I made in the SDIN project. That is, discussing the microprocesses of doing science that Paul and I went through is a vehicle for making a number of important analytical points. Points about the relationship between the social spaces of innovation (such as professional networks and communities of practice), the physical places (such as cityscapes) where these social spaces are ‘anchored’ and the interaction between social spaces and physical places. The SDIN project was such a social space, and it connected to multiple physical places, and this impacted on the science (the theorising) that we developed. The SDIN project contributed to moving the geography of innovation literature away from territorialised notions of geography and towards a relational understanding of space. And the SDIN project was itself a case in point of this move. The case study of the microprocesses of doing the SDIN project also reminded me of how much fun it is to do science. And how wonderful it was to do science with Paul.