Cross-boundary design work : ethnographies of co-design across knowledge and organizational boundaries in professional engineering practice
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- In a world of boundaries, silos, and division, engineers have been called to address so-called "wicked" design challenges such as energy insecurity and inequity that are ill-structured, complex, and tied to multiple groups of stakeholders and potential contributors. As engineers, we are typically untrained in facilitating meaningful engagement with people beyond our knowledge group and organizational boundaries—engaging members of other groups as design contributors, not just as design consultants or recipients of designs. This thesis works to build theory on how designers within organizations and potential design contributors within and outside those organizations span their knowledge group and organizational boundaries as they co-design together. The findings are based on inductive grounded theory analyses of ethnographic fieldwork over two-five years, some of which was collected by a team of researchers, in partnership with design firms in the energy and automotive industries. The main contributions of the thesis are twofold. Firstly, I build theory on how product development professionals engage with objects and each other to support collaborative inquiry, discovery, and design across knowledge group boundaries. Secondly, I build theory on how co-creative capacity is developed or diminished between a firm and an open online community. This work answers recent calls from within the design research community to move toward "theory-driven" research. I build directly upon theories from organization studies, namely "absorptive capacity" and "objects of collaboration." Additionally, the work contributes to a sparse but growing literature that uses a multi-year ethnographic approach with practicing engineers in design organizations in contrast to studies with students or based on surveys, interviews, or controlled experiments that provide only snapshots in time or are divorced from professional design contexts. Taken together, the findings have practical implications for how those engaged in product development can build co-creative capacity, use objects of collaboration, and engage across knowledge group and organizational boundaries to co-design a better world.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2022; ©2022 |
| Publication date | 2022; 2022 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Brubaker, Eric Reynolds |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Hinds, Pamela |
| Degree supervisor | Sheppard, S. (Sheri) |
| Thesis advisor | Hinds, Pamela |
| Thesis advisor | Sheppard, S. (Sheri) |
| Thesis advisor | Yang, Maria |
| Degree committee member | Yang, Maria |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Mechanical Engineering |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Eric Reynolds Brubaker. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Mechanical Engineering. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2022. |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/gt319fz7294 |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2022 by Eric Reynolds Brubaker
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