ESST University of Oslo 1st semester writing assignments

Autumn 2001
    1st essay
    Group research project
    2nd essay

Autumn 2001

1st essay

Please write one of the following essays. The first essay may be maximum 4000 words (ca. 12 pages with 12 point fonts and 1 1|/2 line space). Thise word counts are excluding bibliographical references. An accurate word count at the bottom of the last page of your paper is required.

1. Discuss the way technology is presented in Kurt Vonnegut's short story "The Sisters B-36".

2. Discuss various views on what science and scientific facts are. Feel free to take the point of departure in Merton, Kuhn, Collins, Latour.

3. Both SCOT and ANT take David Bloor´s principle of symmetry "one step further", even if in different directions. Explain how these two directions do this.

4. Is gender a useful category in the study of science and technology? You may present and use examples from the curriculum for your discussion.

Group research project

Lund, Johanne, Silje Rem, Eva Dobos, Irene Olaussen & Andreas Indregard: The GenoMar Paper

Hoftun, Silje, Pål Brennhovd, Gaute Neby, Åge Andre Michaelsen and Danielle Loiselle: Norske Skog

Sigstadstø, Toril, Astrid Szogs, Åsmund Aasland, Sigurd Grytten, Magnus Plyhn & Amund Mowinckel: KnowMobile: Knowledge access in distributed teaching. Mobile opportunities for medical students.A qualitative study of the process of innovation.

Barstad, Vemund, Håvard Bævre, Ellen Eitrem, Runar Olafsen & Janne Seime Siler: Qt [kju:t] Innovations: Qt 3.0 software development at Trolltech

Original assignment:

a) What is the firm’s overall structure in terms of the relationship between production, R&D and other functions? b) What is the specific project’s location within the firm’s context? How is the project organized in terms of internal responsibilities and resource allocations, as well as in terms of collaboration with external partners? Spend most energy in discussing and investigating part b).

Group structure:

Each group should, ideally, be of approximately the same size (4 or 5 persons). This is in order to make the internal distribution of work loads within the groups about the same, and also in order to have approximately the same possibilities for group mechanisms in connection with the project.

Group 1: KnowMobile. Telenor R&D and its collaboration with the faculty of medicine, University of Oslo, and others.

http://www.intermedia.uio.no/prosjekter/knowmobile/index.html

Supervisor for this case: Jarle Hildrum, office on 4th floor in the left corridor

Tlf: 22 84 06 17

i.j.hildrum@tik.uio.no

Contact person in company (i.e. project): Professor Knut Lundby

Group 2: R&D for achieving clean water technology at Norske Skog.

http://www.norske-skog.com/

Supervisor for this case: Terje Grønning, office on 4th floor in the right corridor

Tlf: 22 84 06 05

terje.gronning@tik.uio.no

Contact person in company: Rolf Løvstrøm

Group 3: Super tilapia. Genomar's gene-related research aimed at profits and/or global food supplies.

http://www.genomar.com/tilapia.php

Supervisor for this case: Jens Plathe, office on 4th floor in the left corridor

jens.plahte@tik.uio.no

Contact person in company: Anne-Lill Hellmann

Group 4: Qt 3.0 software development at Trolltech

http://www.trolltech.com/

Supervisor for this case: Mon Domaas Wibe, office on 5th floor main TIK area in the right corridor

Contact persons in company: Tonje Sund & Hanne Linnae

Supervision

The supervisor is a resource person who you may use in order to e.g. adjust the research design and/or developing theoretical issues. As a rule the supervisor may be used for a maximum of ca. two clock hours all together. This time may be split into two or more sessions depending on the group's needs and, of course, the supervisor's other responsibilities. Please make an initial schedule directly with the supervisor as soon as possible after the project's start-up.

Needless to say the supervisor's role is to provide any additional comments or corrections. This means that whenever meeting with the supervisor the group should in beforehand have a proposition (written, in less or greater detail) regarding what it intends to do. In a supervision relationship this written material should ideally be forwarded some time in beforehand, but because of the compact nature of this project work such a procedure is not required.

The supervisor will in some cases accompany the group to at least the first company visit/interview. Please make arrangements regarding this directly with the group's supervisor.

Report structure

Each group writes a report based on the collected information and the theoretical analysis. The report is maximum 10000 words excluding list of references and eventual appendices. The report is to be in English. One copy of the report is to be submitted to the ESST office both as a e-mail attachment/diskette and as a hard copy. The report will be commented by a specialist within organization and innovation studies and Terje, and the comments will be forwarded directly to the group members. The report itself will be available on the Internet home page, and a copy will be sent to the interviewed company.

The report is written jointly by the entire group. This does not literally mean that a certain number of pages must be evenly distributed among the group members. Pleas spend some time at the beginning stages of group as to the competence base of the group, the challenges at hand, and thus the most appropriate distribution of tasks.

Note that the assignment text is rather broad in its orientation. Therefore the groups should spend some time in narrowing down the problem to a succinct problem formulation and a corresponding research design. The report may subsequently be structured around an axis where at least the following elements (not necessarily in this order) are presented:

- problem formulation

- a presentation of the context of the case at hand

- main characteristics of the case

- method: How did you conduct your research?

- the features of the analytical approach

- analysis

- conclusion(s)

Workshop 2 November

Since the written report is to be submitted on the same day as the workshop it is not expected nor advised that the groups invest a tremendous amount of energy into the preparation of elaborate workshop presentations. However, please be prepared to present and discuss:

a) the main characteristic(s) of the case, the analytical approach, and the main finding

b) experiences regarding this particular form of assignment work

Some literature on qualitative methods (* = especially recommended)

Case studies.

* Hammersley, M. and P. Atkinson, P. (1995) 'Research design: problems, cases, and samples', Ch. 2 in Ethnography: Principles in Practice (Second Edition). London: Routledge.

Hartley, Jean GF. (1994) 'Case Studies in Organizational Research', Ch. 12 in Cassell, Catherine and G. Symon (editors) Qualitative Methods in Organizational Research: A Practical Guide. London: Sage.

* Huberman, A.M. and M.B. Miles (1994) 'Data Management and Analysis Methods', in N.K. Denzin and Y.S. Lincoln (editors) Handbook of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

* Stake, Robert E. (1994) 'Case Studies', in N.K. Denzin and Y.S. Lincoln (editors) Handbook of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Yin, R.K. (1994), Case Study Research: Design and Methods (Second Edition). Sage.

Interviewing techniques.

* Hammersley, M. and P. Atkinson, P. (1995) 'Insider accounts: listening and asking questions', Ch. 5 in Ethnography: Principles in Practice (Second Edition). London: Routledge.

Kaarhus, Randi. 'Intervjuing i samfunnsforskningen', i Tidsskrift for samfunnsforskning, Vol. 40, Nr. 1, 1999, side 33-62.

King, Nigel (1994) 'The Qualitative Research Interview', Ch. 2 in Cassell, Catherine and G. Symon (editors) Qualitative Methods in Organizational Research: A Practical Guide. London: Sage.

Whyte, W.F. with K.K. Whyte (1984) 'Interviewing Strategy and Tactics', Ch. 6 in Learning from the Field: A Gudie from Experience. London: Sage.

Literature search engines

http://wgate.bibsys.no/search/pub?lang=N (books, reports)

http://wgate.bibsys.no/isearch/isi?lang=N (articles, citations)

http://www.bibsys.no/webspirs/index.html

http://copac.ac.uk/copac/

http://lcweb.loc.gov/z3950/gateway.html#lc

2nd essay (text to be publicized 6 December 2001)

The second essay may be maximum 6000 words (ca. 18 pages). Thise word counts are excluding bibliographical references. An accurate word count at the bottom of the last page of your paper is required.