Lostness

It is often said that we acquire knowledge, gain insight and make new discoveries. Rarely do we hear of scientific work being discussed in terms of dropping something, letting go, or getting lost. Inspired by Kvale, the following is a practical demonstration of a research process in which everyday experiences of lostness opened up the creative interrogation of scientific concepts (see also Chapter 10). The empirical material comes from a field study of elderly care the aim of which was to contribute to gaining new knowledge about how innovation processes are initiated and managed and, especially, how innovation competencies can be nurtured (Wegener, 2013; 2016). It illustrates my quest for an adequate methodological and theoretical vocabulary while tracing innovation in the field with the help of the theoretical concept of ‘knot-working’. Knot-working is defined as the combination of different kinds of knowledge to achieve new insights; in learning, creativity and innovation, knot-working is seen as a core activity (Engeström, 1987; Tuomi-Gröhn & Engeström, 2003). Knot-working does not necessarily involve new factual knowledge. Rather, it is the act of combining knowledge in new ways; e.g., when people with different professional knowledge or organizational roles interact to identify, analyse and handle problems.