Innovations have hitherto mostly been acknowledged in terms of new technical products

in both theories and policies on innovation. The public support to the transformation of

research results and new ideas into new goods and services, provided by the state as well

as by several universities, has thus primarily been adapted to the conditions prevalent in

technological and manufacturing industries. Since the Nordic countries have a long

tradition in policy and research focusing social aspects of societal development, there

ought to be a potential in supporting innovations emanating from the social sciences as

well. Social science innovations could then better serve to solve the great economic and

social challenges identified on the global level by OECD, on the European level by EU

and on the national level by the EU member states, not least the Nordic countries. But as

the public support system for innovations is adapted to technological standards and

conditions, what possibilities are there to promote and enhance ideas coming out social

science driven innovations? Based on an empirical example of a specific social science

innovation, this article explores how existing support systems could be adapted to

enhance innovation in other disciplines and spheres outside or beyond technological

ones. The empirical example emanates from a university in the middle parts of Sweden,

where the Grants and Innovation Office engaged themselves in a process of intense

adaptation of their services to meet the need of a social science researcher who presented

on the idea of an innovation based on research on the area of gender equality. The article

describes this particular innovation process step by step from research result to

commercialized service using a participatory research design, autobiographical method

and experimental method. Based on this empirical example of realizing a specific social

science innovation, this article outlines a model for analyzing and promoting and

recognizing these type of innovations. The model enables an analysis of the innovation

process by its power dimensions, affecting the prospects of realizing the original idea and

pinpointing key aspects for promoting social science innovations.

Samhällsutmaningar kan mötas med hjälp av forskning och innovation. Sambandet mellan innovation och forskning får stort utrymme i diskussioner om framtiden. Men hur fungerar det för forskning från humaniora och samhällsvetenskapliga ämnen? Hur gör vi då?

I den här antologin diskuteras hum/sam-forskningens vägar framåt för att göra forskning tillgänglig i mer än böcker och artiklar. I artiklarna lyfts exempel, modeller, arbetssätt och olika synsätt. Begrepp och definitioner av innovation och nytta reflekteras. Tanken är att väcka nyfikenhet och frågor hos forskare, innovationsstödjare, samhällsaktörer, företagare, entreprenörer och en nyfiken allmänhet för hum/sam-forskningens möjligheter att förnya och förändra framtiden.

Författare i antologin är: Helena Bani-Shoraka (Stockholms universitet), Patrik Bångerius (Karlstads universitet), Per Kristensson (Karlstads universitet), Malin Lindberg (Luleå tekniska universitet), Mattias Martinson (Uppsala universitet), Cecilia Nahnfeldt, (Karlstads universitet),  Milda Rönn (Stockholms universitet); Christina Lindkvist Scholten (Malmö Högskola)

Redaktörer för antologin är Cecilia Nahnfeldt, Karlstads universitet och Malin Lindberg, Luleå tekniska universitet som sedan några år samarbetar med forskning om innovationer, hum/sam-forskning och genusperspektiv.

In the present paper, we report findings from a study of performance appraisal interviews between middle managers and employees. The study is based on analysis of video uptake of authentic performance appraisal interviews, and through detailed examination of participant conduct and orientation, we point to structural mechanisms and institutional norms which limit the possibilities for employees to raise topics connected to negative experiences of stress in performance appraisal talk. It is argued that norms concerning ideal employeeship are shaped by a partly hidden curriculum in the organization which in turn is talked into being in the performance appraisal interviews. The study concludes that empirical attention to the social interplay in performance appraisal interactions reveal how participant conduct aligns or disaligns with institutional and social underpinnings of workplace ideals.