UC Davis experts: Technology, innovation and culture

The following UC Davis faculty members are available to speak on topics related to art. If you need information on a topic not listed, please contact Julia Ann Easley, UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-8248, jaeasley@ucdavis.edu, or Claudia Morain at the UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-9841, cmmorain@ucdavis.edu.

• Technology in U.S. culture
• How companies innovate
• Problems in adopting new technology
• The arts and technology

Technology in U.S. culture

American studies scholar Michael L. Smith's research and teaching interests focus on the social role of technology, environmentalism and the relation between cultural and natural diversity. Smith, who teaches a course on technology in U.S. culture, wrote "Pacific Visions: California Scientists and the Environment, 1850-1915" (1987). Michael Smith, American Studies, (530) 752-7196 or (530) 752-3377, mlsmith@ucdavis.edu.

How companies innovate

Innovations in business borrow existing ideas from different worlds, mix them in news ways, and create supportive communities to nurture them to fruition, says Andrew Hargadon, an associate professor at the Graduate School of Management. Most breakthroughs, Hargadon says, depend on teams of individuals who bring together ideas gleaned from their knowledge and experiences in different realms -- other industries, settings and even hobbies -- and recombine them in new ways. Some companies have found a way to systematize this innovation process, which he calls technology brokering. His book, How Breakthroughs Happen: The Surprising Truth About How Companies Innovate, was published in 2003 by the Harvard Business School Press. Contact: Andrew Hargadon, Graduate School of Management, (530) 752-227, abhargadon@ucdavis.edu.

Difficulties in adopting new technology

Organizational sociologist Tom Beamish studies how organizations and institutions deal with the environment and technology. Beamish, an assistant professor of sociology, can talk about the difficulties of adopting new technologies and innovative processes. "The cultural and social aspects are, in fact, just as important as the technology itself," Beamish says. He is studying barriers to technological innovations within the building industry in the California Sierra Nevada foothills. Beamish wrote Silent Spill: The Organization of an Industrial Crisis (2002). Contact: Tom Beamish, Sociology, (530) 754-6897, tdbeamish@ucdavis.edu.

The arts and technology

Douglas Kahn, director of the UC Davis Technocultural Studies Program, specializes in the cultural history of sound and technology in the arts. He can talk about new forms of music, history of the avant-garde arts, art and politics, and the role of the arts in educating future technology leaders. Kahn says the arts and humanities have a major role in educating future leaders in creative fields where technology is involved. He wrote Noise, Water, Meat: A History of Sound in the Arts (1999) and co-edited Wireless Imagination: Sound, Radio and the Avant-garde (1992). Douglas Kahn, Technocultural Studies/Art History, (530)754-7208, djkahn@ucdavis.edu.

• Julia Ann Easley, UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-8248, jaeasley@ucdavis.edu
• Claudia Morain at the UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-9841, cmmorain@ucdavis.edu.

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