Uncontested Space Research Articles

Roar of relational peoples

Human consciousness remains an uncontested space. Listening and learning as an Aboriginal researcher to First Nations, Indigenous, African and Pacific Islander Peoples, it became apparent at a philosophical level that there is a shared view of reality. Relational ontology and connected key concepts from various international authors are presented. Demonstrating that despite the dominant Western cultural systems of thought, the earth also holds a loud roar from relational peoples, as they declare their ways of knowing in a world continually experiencing environmental loss and a lack of humanity between people. These voices come from unique and sovereign cultures, but they are also all people groups who position humans, nature and the spirit world as equal entities in their view of reality. However, to begin, this article first shifts the sociological lens onto Western cultural hierarchal thought, to understand how the Western mind became the apex entity.

‘I sing to you / from my place with my righteous kin’: Judith Wright’s decolonial poetics

ABSTRACT Widely celebrated as one of the most influential twentieth-century Australian poets, Judith Wright occupies a central and uncontested space in the national literary canon. The political drive of her poetry, intertwined with her lifelong commitment to ecological and Indigenous rights activism, transformed the platform afforded her as a ‘poet of the land’ into a discursive space through which to contest the legitimacy of her own positioning – as a settler, as a poet, and perhaps most significantly as an anticolonial ally. Despite this, and despite the growing urgency of conversations about institutional decolonization, Wright’s complex legacy as a decolonial agent remains largely uncontested. This article considers Wright’s poetic capacity to strike at the foundation upon which she stands and to excavate the violent histories beneath it; however, it also illuminates the inherited literary traditions that stunt her disruptive efforts. Drawing her contribution as a writer-activist into broader reflections on decolonization, I demonstrate the lasting significance of Wright’s reparative gestures – acknowledging and attending to active silences – as a timely model for literary canon reformation. Such (re)considerations of Wright’s legacy raise pertinent questions about what constitutes decolonial literary activism and gesture towards the silences as yet unbroken by the broader decolonial project.

Indigenous Research Methods to Build an Uncontested Space for Marketing Insight

Many countries have ethnically diverse populations and marketing practitioners need to consider these diversities when undertaking research, particularly when exploring sensitive topics. In Australia, Indigenous Australians make up 3.3% of the population and are a commonly researched audience to gauge attitudes and ensure cultural offense does not occur due to unintended consequences of marketing activity. However, obtaining information from such a vulnerable group using quantitively based surveys is often inappropriate or insensitive. This paper introduces to Euro-western market researchers the concepts of flipping and yarning as a market research approach that has been used by Indigenous Australians for thousands of years. This circular market research approach demonstrates that ensuring a cultural understanding of the community can provide a foundation for a research approach that is ‘considered’ and respectful. It is hoped that this type of methodology can be used with other vulnerable communities as well as other diverse groups.

In Search of a Blue Ocean in the Indian Wine Industry

Naara-Aaba is an indigenous wine innovated by a woman who could predict a beautiful end to her vision of brewing wine from the sacred but exotic fruit kiwi. The brand was launched in 2017 at Hong village of Ziro, Arunachal Pradesh by Tage Rita Takhe; an engineer turned entrepreneur through her venture M/s Lambu Subu Food & Beverages. The brand was named after her late father-in-law lovingly known as ‘Naara’ and ‘Aaba’ meaning father. The motto of the company is to fight a social problem that wreaks havoc across the region, namely the suicides of thousands of farmers who cannot pay back their debt due to drought, poor harvest, and sometimes exacerbated by climate. Rita started her winery facing these hurdles and a field abundant in kiwi fruits. Despite facing many challenges such as lack of efficient production infrastructure, market connectivity, and minimum support from the government machinery, she has created a niche market in the wine industry. This case aims to establish the applicability of the Blue Ocean strategy by applying the tools to create an uncontested market space for Naara-Aaba, the first organic kiwi wine from the north-eastern states of India and second in the world after New Zealand. Research question: How to apply Blue Ocean strategy for the brand Naara-Aaba so that the competition becomes irrelevant? Theory: Blue Ocean theory Type of the case: Applied problem solving Basis of the case: Phenomenon-creating uncontested space in the market Protagonist: Present Findings: The findings revealed that implementing a Blue Ocean strategy will open up new uncontested market spaces for the brand to grow profitably. This case study shows how to apply Blue Ocean strategy for a wine brand. Discussion: Blue Ocean strategy advocates that by eliminating unnecessary attributes, reducing all features that pushes up the cost, raising utility, and creating higher value, a brand can redefine its market where competition is non-existent.

From Design Thinking to Art Thinking with an Open Innovation Perspective—A Case Study of How Art Thinking Rescued a Cultural Institution in Dublin

This article uses a contemporary and revelatory case study to explore the relationship between three conversations in the innovation literature: Design Thinking, creativity in strategy, and the emerging area of Art Thinking. Businesses are increasingly operating in a VUCA environment where they need to design better experiences for their customers and better outcomes for their firm and the Arts are no exception. Innovation, or more correctly, growth through innovation, is a top priority for business and although there is no single, unifying blueprint for success at innovation, Design Thinking is the process that is receiving most attention and getting most traction. We review the literature on Design Thinking, showing how it teaches businesses to think with the creativity and intuition of a designer to show a deep understanding of, and have empathy with, the user. However, Design Thinking has limitations. By placing the consumer at the very heart of the innovation process, Design Thinking can often lead to more incremental, rather than radical, ideas. Now there is a new perspective emerging, Art Thinking, in which the objective is not to design a journey from the current scenario, A, to an improved position, A+. Art Thinking requires the creation of an optimal position B, and spends more time in the open-ended problem space, staking out possibilities and looking for uncontested space. This paper offers a single case study of a national arts organisation in Dublin facing an existential crisis, which used an Art Thinking approach successfully to give a much-needed shot in the arm to its commercial innovation activities.

Bridging Theory and Practice for Commercialization and Innovation – a Market-Centered Perspective for Cross- Industry Applications

Growth thru innovation is a stated goal of organizations ranging from startups to growth companies and to mature, well-established Fortune 500 companies. Different forms of innovation may be pursued depending on the strategic goals of the organization. Smaller entrepreneurial companies, typically startups or “skunk works operations” are well suited to pursue disruptive innovation, or alternatively to create new “blue ocean” markets by exploiting the uncontested space while not unconstrained by an existing (and perhaps profitable) business model that is not well suited to the new markets – Christensen’s Innovators Dilemma. Conversely, incumbents often dominate sustained or incremental innovation for growth of existing markets or customer bases. We highlight below that need- seeking/ customer-driven innovation is predominant in the Silicon Valley innovation ecosystem. Given this success, why is a broader segment of the US economy not following this model?

Professionals and field-level change: Institutional work and the professional project

This article explicates the causal connections between changes in professional jurisdictions and changes in organizational fields. The authors argue that professional projects carry within them projects of institutionalization. They focus attention on the critical but often invisible role that professionals play in institutional work, or the creation, maintenance and transformation of institutions. The key contribution of this article is to explicate the professional project as an endogenous mechanism of institutional change. Based on a review of prior research on institutional change in which professionals play a central role, the authors observe four essential dynamics through which professionals reconfigure institutions and organizational fields. First, professionals use their expertise and legitimacy to challenge the incumbent order and to define a new, open and uncontested space. Second, professionals use their inherent social capital and skill to populate the field with new actors and new identities. Third, professionals introduce nascent new rules and standards that recreate the boundaries of the field. Fourth, professionals manage the use and reproduction of social capital within a field thereby conferring a new status hierarchy or social order within the field.

An alternative view of the role of clinical pharmacology

An alternative view of the role of clinical pharmacology