Language as a platform for innovation
Some lessons from elBulli
M. Pilar OpazoDept of Sociology Columbia University NYC
Ramon SangüesaTechnical University of Catalonia
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
A recipe for hybrid research
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Work in progress
• A study on the organizational evolution of elBulli and its sustained creativity and innovation
• How and why practices started at elBulli have spread across time and social space, within the gastronomic field and in other fields
• How elBulli’s practices are transmitted to elBulli Foundation, specially given its interest in knowledge-sharing and diffusion.
• To understand the present and the future we need to start by looking at the past.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Dimensions of the study
•Which aspects of the past of elBulli will remain in the present and help us think about the future of elBulli Foundation?
• Organizational narratives
- Self-perception
- Perception of outsiders
• Organizational trajectory
• Diffusion
- From outlier to reference
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Dimensions of the study
•Which aspects of the past of elBulli will remain in the present and help us think about the future of elBulli Foundation?
• Organizational narratives
- Self-perception
- Perception of outsiders
• Organizational trajectory
• Diffusion
- From outlier to reference
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Work so farIn-depth interviews
Field tripsAnalysis of Secondary sources
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Importance of language
“Cuisine… is as well panoply of narratives that sustain
praxis. Cuisine constructs and upholds a community of discourse, a collectivity held together by words,
by language, by interpretations of the world in
which we live”.
( P. Ferguson, "Accounting for Taste", 2004:8)
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
From Food for Thoughtto Thought for Food
(Ferguson 2004)
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Example: objectivation
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
elBulli’s language
• Products or ingredients
• Technology (equipments and utensils)
• Preparations (concepts and techniques)
• Styles and characteristics
Recipes
Combinatorics and Heuristics
("A day at elBulli" 2010)
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Language as a technology
“We create words, with those words we create sentences and with those sentences we create
paragraphs….the more words we have, the more unique our
language will be.”
(Ferran Adria March 2011,NYC)
“Culinary Creativity”
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
A codified language offers a platform to create, that is
collectively shared
Make sense of the world and coordinate….defines the
playground
Not only use language to create but expand and transform this language
Language as a technology
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
How can we trace the importance and use of elBulli’s language?
• Measurable innovation results
• Number of recipes
• Number of techniques
• Number of new concepts
• Identify its adoption by the culinary field
• Timeline of adoption
• References
• Spillovers into other fields
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Ethnographic approach
How was language adopted and used?
How does it expands?
Examine the use of elBulli’s language in practice: Chefs
CollaboratorsCompetitors
Schools of cuisine Scientific Groups
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Media Analysis
• Books
• Articles
• Extraction of words
• Correlation with internal language
• When do tipping points happen
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Web Analysis
• Seeding the words
• Crawling
• Relating to communities
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Community detection and
analysisStructural folds
Where do the most innovative (not just “connected”) members
of the relevant ommunities around the elBulli Foundation?
Qualitative analysis (ethnographic approach)
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Hybrid approach
Qualitative Approach
Quantitative
Approach
Archival Text Mining
Innovator’s identification
Historical ethnography
Discourse Analysis
In-depth interviews
Environment
Organization
Networkexploration
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Open research questions
• How can we can find ways of extrapolating elBulli knowledge to other organizations, within the gastronomic field and in other fields?
• How is the new environment of elBulli Foundation articulated? Which kinds of diffusion strategies could be more effective?
• Which aspects of the past of elBulli that will remain in the present and help us to think about the future of elBulli Foundation?
• How to understand better the connection between different types of methods and technologies for this type of research?
Alicia
Restaur
Media
CulinaryExperts
General Public
Universities
?
Internet
?
?
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Open research questions
• How can we can find ways of extrapolating elBulli knowledge to other organizations, within the gastronomic field and in other fields?
• How is the new environment of elBulli Foundation articulated? Which kinds of diffusion strategies could be more effective?
• Which aspects of the past of elBulli that will remain in the present and help us to think about the future of elBulli Foundation?
• How to understand better the connection between different types of methods and technologies for this type of research?
Alicia
Restaur
Media
CulinaryExperts
General Public
Universities
?
Internet
?
?
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Final remarks
• The measure of an organization’s innovative potential relies on its capacity to define and develop a solid platform to innovate.
• What matters most is the quality of the “words” and “sentences”, created and the opportunities of crossovers that they may open
“ElBulli una historia de un sueño” Audiovisual
Catalogue
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
References• Abend, Lisa. 2011. "The sorcerer's apprentices: a season in the kitchen of Ferran Adria’s
elBulli." New York: Free Press.
• Bourdieu, Pierre. 1979. “Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste”. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
• Czarniawska, Barbara. (1997). “The Narrative of Cultural Studies.” In Narrating the Organization: Dramas of Institutional Identity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Ferguson, Priscilla. 2004. “Accounting for Taste: The Triumph of French Cuisine.” Chicago: Chicago University Press.
• Stark, David. (2009). The sense of dissonance: Accounts of worth in economic life. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
• Svejenova, Silviya; Mazza, Carmelo and Planellas, Marc El. 2007. “Cooking up Change in Haute Cuisine: Ferran Adria As an Institutional Entrepreneur”.
• Vedres, Balazs and Stark, David. 2010. “Structural Folds: Generative Disruption in Overlapping Groups,” American Journal of Sociology 15/4: 1150-90.
• Yon-Yeo, Ahn, Sebastian Ahnert, James P. Bagrow and Barabasi, Albert-Lazslo. 2011. http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/MAR11/Event/144486
• ElBulli Publications
Tuesday, October 18, 2011