2.4 Research process
2.4.3 Focal points in studying practice
In my empirical field work, I also considered it helpful to have in mind the abstraction or scheme below, which builds on Karnøe and Garud (2003)16. The abstraction, points to agents that possibly have a bearing on the
16 Karnøe and Garud’s scheme (2003) point to distributed agents that have a bearing on the emergence of a technological path. I have modified it slightly, in lay out and content, replacing evaluation with organisation, as I think evaluation can be fused with regulation since technical evaluation / technical standards may be argued to be part of setting ‘the rules of the game’. I have also added nature.
emergence of a technological path, but does not say anything about the process. However to borrow from Weick (2005), the abstraction “impose discrete labels on subject matter that is continuous”, and thereby provides a guide post for how and where to ‘look’. Hence, I have used it as a sensitizing framework (Patton 1990) in the empirical fieldwork and interview processes.
A sensitizing framework helps orient fieldwork17 by providing guidance in approaching empirical instances e.g. themes, events and activities, which are considered central to the field and phenomena, in this case, to innovation processes and technology emergence. Hence the abstraction highlights points of attention or ‘activity arenas’ that are not predetermined but potential travel points for hydrogen energy activities, which practitioners trying to advance hydrogen as an energy carrier may relate to and work on.
In the centre of the abstraction, there is the hydrogen energy activity / project studied, where we find actions, events, organising, talking, communicating or meshing in relation to five arenas. The five points of attention or activity arenas may be seen as containing opportunity as well as restraint. Restraint as they contain elements of established practice and possible competition from other energy solutions; yet opportunity because their content is not fixed. For the purpose of simplification, one may say that they are somewhat
17 It is impossible to observe everything. The human observer is not a movie camera, and even a movie camera has to be pointed in the right direction to capture what is happening. For both the human observer and the camera there must be focus. Sensitizing concepts help orient fieldwork as they alert us to ways of organizing observations and include ideas that are fundamental to the field.
‘black boxes’, because the content of these arenas are not given a priori but becomes in interaction with hydrogen energy activity. They may be said to set the scope for hydrogen energy activity, to be the surface of emergence, but are also shaped by hydrogen energy activity.
This is easier to picture, if adding that the points of attention are arenas where activity or ‘mesh-work’ unfolds. Interests, ideas, resources, and people meet, are coupled and mutually shaped. The content and attributes of the five points of attention/ activity arenas emerge and change in the course of interaction with hydrogen energy activity and hydrogen advocates. It is always difficult to depict dynamics in an abstraction, and I have tried to depict an interlinked configuration with as few solid borders and arrows, as possible. This is done to convey the idea that as hydrogen energy activity evolves through meshing in relation to the five activity arenas; then hydrogen energy, e.g. a project, come to include attributes from the five arenas. Vice versa, the arenas are also transformed with hydrogen energy related features. Further, as activities unfold in relation to one of the arenas, points of attention, it may have bearing on the others. Hence I am trying to depict a continuous dynamics and presence of the attention points in relation to hydrogen energy activity.
1. Regulation and funding: relates to a range of allocations and initiatives such as laws, plans, R&D funding, product requirements, and other policy instruments that are used to legitimise, regulate and coordinate actions. These may constrain or provide incentives for hydrogen energy activities and shape the rate and direction of the hydrogen energy development path. However, the regulatory framework is not pre-given; it is often non-existing in relation to a new technology and has to be created. How does this point of attention have a bearing on the company’s hydrogen and hydrogen projects, and vice versa, how is hydrogen energy activity in the company connected to regulatory frameworks in Norway and internationally?
2. Organisation: concerns the act or process of organising or of being organised18. How are formative activities undertaken within the organisation in terms of sorting out possible activities, mobilising from ideas to decisions on the development of hydrogen energy initiatives? How does hydrogen become part of the strategic aim of Hydro? Organisation concerns internal Hydro processes, ways of organising hydrogen activity from initiation through implementation e.g. in-house research and development, partners, technical cooperation; and how hydrogen energy activity/project are positioned within the existing organisational structure.
18http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/organization
3. Use and development of markets: have to be created for hydrogen.
Arenas are needed where use and the hydrogen market may be rehearsed. How is hydrogen energy fitted into existing material and technical structures? New markets may be defined as hydrogen and hydrogen technology creates opportunities for new applications.
Demo-markets / demonstration projects may be important for awareness, feasibility of hydrogen solutions. Identification of user benefits, user information and education on use and safety may also be important in this activity arena. If and in what way does the organisation relate to and get involved in the user and the market element?
4. Design & production: producers become involved in technologies based on their experiences. How are technologies, technical skills and competence generated (R&D, learning by doing and feedback from using, partnerships)? What are the resource endowments in terms of scientific and technological research as well as human resources, skills, educational training relevant to hydrogen energy?
What type of role and position should the company have in a technology development process and path? Where should the organisation be in the process (the resource, idea and concept generation phase, technology developer; or technology purchase)?
Looking into this point of attention, the contours or forms of material agency may also be explored as emerges in practice.
5. Nature: may denote the natural conditions under which hydrogen energy based technological systems shall operate (e.g. offshore conditions with storms and salt, hot and cold climates).
Technologies must prove their functioning and viability, which links back to the production and design point. At another level, nature has an acting capability of its own. This concerns how hydrogen energy is related to contemporary societal problems e.g. pollution challenges ranging from acid rain to greenhouse gas emissions and climatic changes impacting human societies. These impacts influence efforts to make new technologies and shape attention and allocations. How is hydrogen energy linked to challenges?
As mentioned above, I have used it as a sensitizing framework in the empirical fieldwork and interview processes to make sure that conversations were related to these points of attention. This was done to find out if and how practitioners trying to advance hydrogen as an energy carrier related to and worked on these activity arenas that have been indicated to have a bearing on the emergence of a technological path.