Benoît Godin

This timely book provides an intellectual and conceptual history of a key representation of innovation: technological innovation. Tracing the history of the discourses of scholars, practitioners and policy-makers, and exploring how and why innovation became defined as technological, Benoît Godin studies the emergence of the term, its meaning, and its transformation and use over time.Part I of this unique book offers a genealogy of technological innovation from technological unemployment through technological change and technological progress. Part II then turns to the discourse on technological innovation, asserting that it has emerged as a key term because it serves utilitarian functions.The Invention of Technological Innovation will be of interest to students and academics studying the concepts and theories of innovation, whilst also being a key resource for policy-makers, managers and analysts looking to gain a deeper understanding of the topic.

Languages, Discourses and Ideology in Historical Perspective

The Invention of Technological Innovation

How do we objectively measure scientific activities? What proportion of economic activities should a society devote to research and development? How can public-sector and private-sector research best be directed to achieve social goals? Governments and researchers from industrial countries have been measuring science and technology for more than eighty years. This book provides the first comprehensive account of the attempts to measure science and technology activities in Western countries and the successes and shortcomings of statistical systems. Godin guides readers through the historical moments that led to the development of statistics on science and technology and also examines the socio-political dynamics behind social measurement. This enlightening account will be of interest to students and academics investigating science measurement as well as policy makers working in this burgeoning field.

1920 to the Present

Measurement and Statistics on Science and Technology

Dominique Vinck

Different theories, models and narratives of innovation compete for both legitimacy and authority. However, despite the variations, they all offer a consistent pro-innovation bias, dismissing resistance as irrational, and overlooking the value of non-users and collateral impacts. This book asks, what has been left out? It offers a reflexive view and invites researchers to consider new avenues of research, through a critique of current representations of innovation.The chapters provide a different viewpoint on innovation by exploring what has been omitted from traditional innovation studies. The book examines imitation, non-innovative roles, resistance to innovation, slow innovation, the rationale of non-users, failure, withdrawal, collateral impacts and alternative models. Calling for new definitions and frameworks, the editors have created a critical program for innovation studies with new avenues for future research.Offering state-of-the-art discussion of theories, models, narratives and ideologies of innovation and alternative approaches, this book will be an essential resource for scholars in technology and innovation, management, engineering, political and social sciences. It will also appeal to policy-makers in the science and technology sector.

Alternative Approaches to the Pro-Innovation Bias

Critical Studies of Innovation

Innovation is everywhere. In the world of goods (technology), but also in the world of words: innovation is discussed in the scientific and technical literature, but also in the social sciences and humanities. Innovation is also a central idea in the popular imaginary, in the media and in public policy. Innovation has become the emblem of the modern society and a panacea for resolving many problems. Today, innovation is spontaneously understood as technological innovation because of its contribution to economic "progress". Yet for 2,500 years, innovation had nothing to do with economics in a positive sense. Innovation was pejorative and political. It was a contested idea in philosophy, religion, politics and social affairs. Innovation only got de-contested in the last century. This occurred gradually beginning after the French revolution. Innovation shifted from a vice to a virtue. Innovation became an instrument for achieving political and social goals. In this book, Benoît Godin lucidly examines the representations and meaning(s) of innovation over time, its diverse uses, and the contexts in which the concept emerged and changed. This history is organized around three periods or episteme: the prohibition episteme, the instrument episteme, and the value episteme.

The Idea of Innovation Over the Centuries

Innovation Contested

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} This timely book provides an intellectual and conceptual history of a key representation of innovation: technological innovation. Tracing the history of the discourses of scholars, practitioners and policy-makers, and exploring how and why innovation became defined as technological, Benoît Godin studies the emergence of the term, its meaning, and its transformation and use over time.

This timely book explores technological innovation as a concept, dissecting its emergence, development and use. Benoît Godin offers an exciting new historiography of the subject, arguing that the study of innovation originates not from scholars but from practitioners of innovation.

Benoît Godin

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