Disruptive innovation for social change: how technology innovation can be best managed in social context

This paper describes a research approach based on the Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to interpret and understand the Korea’s strategy for the development of the ubiquitous city (u-city). Analyzing empirical materials from u-city development, this study traces and unpacks the interaction occurring around the u-city innovation and also identifies patterns of innovation, concentrating on negotiation and translation implementation. The findings imply that Korean approach has marginalized key issues relating to the development potential inherent in the combination of knowledge and technology and thus conflicts with broader development suggestions of participative design. Korean case reveals the essential role of participatory design in u-city development. U-city as a public utility should draw users’ perspectives, its design should be heavily grounded in users’ needs, and its design decisions should be based on a community consensus. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.