Actionable Ethnography in Participatory Innovation: A Case Study

In this paper we describe how ongoing work with ethnographic material in a participatory innovation sets the scene for innovation to happen. We elaborate on how actionable formats of ethnographic material have been mediated to industrial partners with a stake in an innovation project. We illustrate how the stakeholders engaged in activities such as sense-making, co-analysis, and cross-comparison of the ethnographic materials, and the specification and mapping of innovation opportunities. We argue that these activities served to establish a shared understanding and ownership of the participatory research, design material.