Liminal innovation in practice: understanding the reconfiguration of digital work in crisis

Wanda J. Orlikowski and Susan V. Scott

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: As conditions of crisis disrupt established practices, existing ways of doing things are interrupted and called into question. The suspension of routine sociomaterial enactments produces openings for liminal innovation, a process entailing iterative experimentation and implementation that explores novel or alternative materializations of established work practices. We draw attention to three distinct tensions on the ground that arise in conditions of crisis — pragmatic, tactical, and existential — and show how these may be leveraged to produce liminal innovations in practice. While the process of liminal innovation can be challenging, it can also be generative, creating opportunities for the reconfiguration of digital work in conditions of crisis.

Keywords: digital work; liminality; materialization; practice; experimentation; conditions of crisis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 6 pages
Date: 2021-03
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Information and Organization, March, 2021, 31(1). ISSN: 1471-7727

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