The sources of use knowledge – towards a framework about use, consumption and industrial dynamics

This paper reviews three strands of the innovation literature that have presented innovation as a distributed process that combines knowledge of users, designers and manufacturers: user innovations, Science and Technology Studies (STS), and the study of consumption. These literatures have explored different aspects of the micro-processes through which use and design are locally aligned. This paper pulls together insights from these literatures, and identifies an important gap: the connections between the local alignment of use and design and the macro dynamics of industrial and technological change. The paper then calls for an analysis of the social processes that link the dynamics of the use environment, where forms and meanings of use are actively created, with the technical knowledge bases of industries. It concludes with a number of propositions towards an integrated framework of use, consumption and industrial dynamics.