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Short abstract:

This paper investigates the life of knowledge in public sector innovation labs and how knowledge can be seen as an actant in knowledge-sharing networks. In line with calls for 'doing academia differently', the analysis uses the fairy tale of the Emperor's New Clothes as a metaphorical vehicle.

Long abstract:

Public administration scholars have long debated the relationship between the public sector and the knowledge it so eagerly seeks to support its (evidence-based) service delivery and decision-making (Miller, 2004; Porter, 2020; Wiig, 2002). The latest iteration in this process is the creation of innovation labs (i-labs), islands of experimentation producing novel types of knowledge to support (an increasingly digitising) public sector (Cole, 2022; Iho & Missonier, 2021; Tõnurist, Kattel, & Lember, 2017). This paper contributes to these epistemological debates through an ethnographic study of such an i-lab in the Netherlands. Combining over two hundred hours of participant observation with narrative interviews, this thesis aims to narrate the life of knowledge in a public innovation lab.

In alignment with the object of study, the analysis is structured in a novel format of its own: by way of a fairy tale. In doing so, this paper answers recent scholarly calls (e.g. from Beauchamps (2021) and Haraway (1988)) for ‘doing academia differently’, and pushing the boundaries of our disciplining writing practices. By incorporating creative writing into the scientific method and thus embodying the innovative practices observed at the i-lab, this paper aims to support an increasingly digitising and virtualising public sector as well as contribute to academic debates on knowledge as an actant in public sector innovation (Latour, 2007; Twum-Darko & Harker, 2017; Wickramasinghe, Tatnall, & Bali, 2012).