In recent years, the place of users has considerably expanded in the prescriptions and rules decreed by innovation framing programmes. This upswing in user importance is occurring at the crossroads of trends and fundamental shifts within both the social sciences and firms. User-centered innovation (UCI) is growing among innovation players as a guiding principle for the organization and fulfilment of innovation projects. The UCI approach is built around three interdependent requirements: (1) the involvement of "real users", (2) the integration of action-research skills dedicated to the observation and analysis of users' experience and (3) the sharing of knowledge produced within multidisciplinary groups. This chapter proposes to explore the development of the UCI approach from its theoretical roots to these recent operational translations. Beyond the socio historical analysis of the evolution of "user approaches" in the technoscientific and political spheres of innovation, this chapter intends to deliver a pragmatic vision of collective activities driven by the injunction to innovate "with users".
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Front Matter
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Part I: VISIONS OF INNOVATION
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Part II: THEORIZING INNOVATION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: THE FOUNDATIONS
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Part III: ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO INNOVATION
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Part IV: ALTERNATIVE TYPES OF INNOVATION
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Part V: SUPPORTING INNOVATION: REFRAMING THE INSTRUMENTS
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Part VI: IMMUNE DISCIPLINES AND FORGOTTEN THEORIZATIONS
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Part VII: THEORIZING THE THEORIES
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Back Matter
