Pilar Opazo is a Post-Doctoral Research Scholar at the Columbia Business School. She did her PhD in Sociology at Columbia University. Her research interests include Organizational and Economic Sociology, Innovation Studies, Qualitative Methods, Science and Technology Studies.Her book “Appetite for Innovation: Change and Creativity at elBulli,” recently published with Columbia University Press, uses ethnographic techniques to examine the nature of radical and systematic innovation. Her investigation considers the case of elBulli, the avant-garde restaurant directed by Chef Ferran Adria that has pioneered the “molecular” or “experimental” cuisine movement in the gastronomy industry. http://cup.columbia.edu/book/appetite-for-innovation/9780231176781 Pilar’s doctoral dissertation received the “Robert K. Merton Award” for Best Dissertation in 2014, awarded by the Sociology Department at Columbia University. Her research has been supported by a Fulbright Scholarship and a grant awarded by Telefonica Digital, Barcelona, major telecommunication company in Spain.
Her published works include two co-authored books, Communications of Organizations (2007) and Negotiation (2006). Also, two peer-reviewed articles in Sociological Theory entitled ‘Order at the Edge of Chaos’ and International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science entitled ‘Discourse as a Driver of Innovation: the case of elBulli restaurant’ (2013).
During 2008 and 2009, under the frame of the Center on Organizational Innovation (COI), Pilar conducted ethnographic and network-analytic research at “Citilab” a center of social innovation located in Barcelona. Before coming to Columbia University, Pilar coordinated the Research Center of “Infocap,” a foundation that provides labor training to unskilled workers in Chile.
Education
Ph. D Sociology (May, 2014)
Department of Sociology, Columbia University
M.A. Sociology (May, 2010)
Department of Sociology, Columbia University
B.A. Sociology and Minor Philosophy
Catholic University of Chile, Magna Cum Laude
