نوآوری مخل برای تغییر اجتماعی: چگونه نوآوری در فن آوری را می تواند به بهترین شکل در زمینه اجتماعی مدیریت کند؟

This paper describes a research approach based on the Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to interpret and understand the Korea’s strategy for the development of the ubiquitous city (u-city). Analyzing empirical materials from u-city development, this study traces and unpacks the interaction occurring around the u-city innovation and also identifies patterns of innovation, concentrating on negotiation and translation implementation. The findings imply that Korean approach has marginalized key issues relating to the development potential inherent in the combination of knowledge and technology and thus conflicts with broader development suggestions of participative design. Korean case reveals the essential role of participatory design in u-city development. U-city as a public utility should draw users’ perspectives, its design should be heavily grounded in users’ needs, and its design decisions should be based on a community consensus.

Since Weiser (1991) raised the concept of ubiquitous computing, the idea has seen speedy realization with the rapid and far-reaching advancement of information communication technology (ICT). Recently, the idea has received more attention as it combines ever-present computing technologies, a current application of which is ubiquitous city projects. The ubiquitous city, or u-city, refers to a region with omnipresent ICT where all information systems are linked, and virtually everyone is connected to an information system through technologies such as wireless networking and radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags. The concept has received most attention in Korea, which has actively developed 15 ubiquitous cities since 2003. The Korean government and industry together have combined efforts for a national urban development project focused on integrating advanced ICT infrastructure to support sustainable development of futuristic cities. The u-city project aims at creating environments in cities where residents can enjoy access to high-speed networks and advanced information services regardless of location through a ubiquitous computing network.

The goal of this study was to examine the translation process, how focal actors problematized Korea’s u-city project, how u-city proponents enrolled the other actors, how proponents promoted their knowledge claim, and how it was received by the marketplace. It described how the actors’ interests were translated and mobilized into the network to address the problematization brought about by focal actors. The findings illustrate how the aligned interests of the u-city are created through the enrollment of actors of allies and the translation of their interests so that they participate in particular ways of thinking and acting that maintain the network. The results of the analysis can be explained in terms of theoretical and practical contribution.