Ideas, in Motion: Twenty-five Years of Rethinking Relations and Knowledge at the COI

The Center on Organizational Innovation (COI) at Columbia University celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary, and this essay reviews this quarter of a century of conceptual and methodological innovations at COI in the area of networks, communication, and knowledge. The content of these concepts has...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Balazs Vedres
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Bologna 2025-05-01
Series:Sociologica
Subjects:
Online Access:https://sociologica.unibo.it/article/view/21270
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850191321925419008
author Balazs Vedres
author_facet Balazs Vedres
author_sort Balazs Vedres
collection DOAJ
description The Center on Organizational Innovation (COI) at Columbia University celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary, and this essay reviews this quarter of a century of conceptual and methodological innovations at COI in the area of networks, communication, and knowledge. The content of these concepts has changed markedly, partly due to advances within interdisciplinary encounters, and partly due to fundamental changes in underlying social phenomena. COI scholars strived to understand such novel phenomena by methodological innovation with conceptual richness, engaging with temptations to adopt simplistic and atavistic imageries of sociation and agency in interdisciplinary fields. The fields of network science, knowledge networks, and online communications are three areas where COI research brought novel insights, that challenged dominant perspectives, marrying an ethnographer’s mindset with a broad range of quantitative methods. In addition to reviewing COI research achievements, I also outline key contemporary empirical puzzles, where perspectives from COI remain relevant and fruitful.
format Article
id doaj-art-2f618f42a6f5456a8cfd7fbcdc6953db
institution OA Journals
issn 1971-8853
language English
publishDate 2025-05-01
publisher University of Bologna
record_format Article
series Sociologica
spelling doaj-art-2f618f42a6f5456a8cfd7fbcdc6953db2025-08-20T02:14:57ZengUniversity of BolognaSociologica1971-88532025-05-0119111712310.6092/issn.1971-8853/2127019647Ideas, in Motion: Twenty-five Years of Rethinking Relations and Knowledge at the COIBalazs Vedres0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9469-8774Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology and Department of Network and Data Science, Central European UniversityThe Center on Organizational Innovation (COI) at Columbia University celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary, and this essay reviews this quarter of a century of conceptual and methodological innovations at COI in the area of networks, communication, and knowledge. The content of these concepts has changed markedly, partly due to advances within interdisciplinary encounters, and partly due to fundamental changes in underlying social phenomena. COI scholars strived to understand such novel phenomena by methodological innovation with conceptual richness, engaging with temptations to adopt simplistic and atavistic imageries of sociation and agency in interdisciplinary fields. The fields of network science, knowledge networks, and online communications are three areas where COI research brought novel insights, that challenged dominant perspectives, marrying an ethnographer’s mindset with a broad range of quantitative methods. In addition to reviewing COI research achievements, I also outline key contemporary empirical puzzles, where perspectives from COI remain relevant and fruitful.https://sociologica.unibo.it/article/view/21270networksknowledgecommunication
spellingShingle Balazs Vedres
Ideas, in Motion: Twenty-five Years of Rethinking Relations and Knowledge at the COI
Sociologica
networks
knowledge
communication
title Ideas, in Motion: Twenty-five Years of Rethinking Relations and Knowledge at the COI
title_full Ideas, in Motion: Twenty-five Years of Rethinking Relations and Knowledge at the COI
title_fullStr Ideas, in Motion: Twenty-five Years of Rethinking Relations and Knowledge at the COI
title_full_unstemmed Ideas, in Motion: Twenty-five Years of Rethinking Relations and Knowledge at the COI
title_short Ideas, in Motion: Twenty-five Years of Rethinking Relations and Knowledge at the COI
title_sort ideas in motion twenty five years of rethinking relations and knowledge at the coi
topic networks
knowledge
communication
url https://sociologica.unibo.it/article/view/21270
work_keys_str_mv AT balazsvedres ideasinmotiontwentyfiveyearsofrethinkingrelationsandknowledgeatthecoi