INNOVATION, RESISTANCE OR TINKERING Rearticulating Everyday Life in an Ethnological Perspective

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the background and history that ethnologists bring to bear on interdisciplinaryinnovation projects. We argue that although ethnology is well-equipped to contribute to innovation projects, our discipline also builds upon a series of conceptual configurations, and that these classic ethnological concepts and “taken for granted” understandings sit oddly with contemporary ideas about innovation as expressed in recent Danish innovation policy. These reflections were prompted by our participation in a joint innovation project funded by a Danish programme for user-driven innovation. By revisiting the discipline of ethnology as it has been conducted in southern Scandinavia, we identify three key points that explain our concerns regarding the way inwhich everyday life was analysed and configured in the innovation project.