Open Journal Systems

X-Innovation: Re-Inventing Innovation Again and Again

Gérald Gaglio, Benoît Godin, Sebastian Pfotenhauer

Abstract


Innovation is an old word, of Greek origin, that came into the Latin vocabulary in the early Middle Age and into our everyday vocabulary with the Reformation. However, it is only during the second half of the twentieth century that innovation became a fashionable concept and turned into a buzzword. It gave rise to a plethora of terms like technological innovation, organizational innovation, industrial innovation and, more recently, social innovation, open innovation, sustainable innovation, responsible innovation. We may call these terms X-innovation.

In this way, X-innovation is the latest step to give sense to a century-old process of enlargement of the concept of innovation. Over the last five centuries, innovation enlarged its meaning from the religious to the political to the social to the economical. X-innovation is the more recent such enlargement. It Is the continuation, under new terms, of the contestation of technological innovation as the dominant discourse of the twentieth century.

How can we make sense of this semantic extension? Why do these terms come into being? What drives people to coin new terms? What effects do the terms have on thought, on culture and scholarship and on policy and politics? Which forms of contestation and appropriation ensue around certain X-innovations? How do they shape, and are shaped by, broader social trends? How to they relate to questions of power and inclusion?


Keywords


Innovation Studies; Science, Technology and Innovation – STI; Conceptual History; Intellectual History; X-Innovation

Full Text:

PDF

References


Callon, M. (2007). L’innovation sociale: quand l’économie redevient politique. In J.-L. Klein & D. Harrisson (Eds.), L’innovation sociale: Émergence et effets sur la transformation des sociétés (p. 15-42). Presses de l’université du Québec.

Cloutier, J. (2003). Qu’est-ce que l’innovation sociale? UQAM, CRISES – Centre de recherche sur les innovations sociales.

Comte, A. (1841). Cours de philosophie positive (2nd ed., vol. 5). Ballière et Fils [1864].

Dedijer, S. (1984). Science and Technology-Related Social Innovations in UNCSTD National Papers. In C.G. Heden & A. King (Eds.), Social Innovations for Development (p. 57-92). Pergamon Press.

Drucker, P. F. (1957). Landmarks of Tomorrow. Harper and Row.

Fawcett, D. M. G. (1888). Communism. In T. S. Baynes (Ed.), Encyclopedia Britannica (vol. 6, 9th ed., p. 211-219). Horace E. Hooper, Walter M. Jackson.

Godin, B. (2008). In the Shadow of Schumpeter: W. Rupert Maclaurin and the Study of Technological Innovation. Minerva, 46(3), 343-60.

Godin, B. (2015). Innovation Contested: The Idea of Innovation Over the Centuries. Routledge.

Godin, B. (2016). Technological Innovation: On the Emergence and Development of an Inclusive Concept. Technology and Culture, 57(3), 527-556.

Godin, B. (2017). Models of Innovation: The History of an Idea. MIT Press.

Godin, B. (2019a). Innovation and the Marginalization of Research. In S. Kuhlmann, D. Simon & W. Canzler (Eds.), Handbook of Science and Public Policy. Edward Elgar.

Godin, B. (2019b). The Invention of Technological Innovation: Languages, Discourses and Ideology in Historical Perspective. Edward Elgar.

Godin, B., & Gaglio, G. (2019). How does innovation sustains ‘sustainable innovation’. In F. Boons & A. McMeekin (Eds.), Handbook on Sustainable Innovation (pp. 27-37). Edward Elgar.

Godin, B., & Lane, J. P. (2013). ‘Pushes and Pulls’: The Hi(story) of the Demand Pull Model of Innovation. Science, Technology and Human Values, 38(5), 621-654.

Hansen, A. H. (1932). The Theory of Technological Progress and the Dislocation of Employment. American Economic Review, 22(1), 25-31.

Havelock, R. G., & Havelock, M. C. (1973). Educational Innovation in the United States. Report to the National Institute of Education, US Office of Education.

Hillier, J., Moulaert, F., & Nussbaumer, J. (2004). Trois essais sur le rôle de l'innovation sociale dans le développement territorial. Géographie, économie, société, 2(6), 129-152.

Ionescu, C. (2015). About the Conceptualisation of Social innovation. Theoretical and Applied Economics, 22(3), 53-62.

Klein, J. L., & Harrisson D. (Eds.) (2007). L’innovation sociale: Émergence et effets sur la transformation des sociétés. Presses de l’université du Québec.

Lechevalier, J. (1834). Des paroles d’un croyant. Revue du progrès social, 1(5), 518-538.

Mesthene, E. G. (1969). Foreword. In R.S. Rosenbloom & R. Marris (Eds.), Social innovation in the City: New Enterprises for Community Development. Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press.

Morse, D., & Warner, A. W. (Eds.) (1966). Technological Innovation and Society. Columbia Press University.

Morton, J. A. (1971). Organising for Innovation: A Systems Approach to Technical Management. McGraw Hill.

Mulgan, G. (2007). Social Innovation: What It Is, Why It Matters and How It Can Be Accelerated. SKOLL Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, Said School of Business.

Mumford, M. D. (2002). Social Innovation. Creativity Research Journal, 14(2), 253-266.

Murray, R., Mulgan, G., & Caulier-Grice, J. (2009). Generating Social Innovation: Setting an Agenda, Shaping Methods and Growing the Field. www.socialinnovationexchange.org.

Nussbaumer, J., & Moulaert, F. (2002). L’innovation sociale au coeur des débats publics et scientifiques. In J.-L. Klein & D. Harrisson (Eds.), L’innovation sociale: Émergence et effets sur la transformation des sociétés (p. 71-88). Presses de l’université du Québec.

OECD (1971). Science, Growth and Society: a New Perspective. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Sargant, W. L. (1858). Social innovators and Their Schemes. Smith, Elder and Co.

Schatzberg, E. (2006). Technik Comes to America: Changing Meanings of Technology Before 1930. Technology and Culture, 47, 486-512.

Schumpeter, J. A. (1939). Business Cycles: A Theoretical, Historical, and Statistical Analysis of the Capitalist Process (Two Volumes). McGraw Hill.

Stern, B. J. (1937). Resistance to the Adoption of Technological Innovations. In US National Resources Committee, Technological Trends and National Policy (USGPO, p. 33-69). Subcommittee on Technology, Washington.

Usher, A. P. (1929). A History of Mechanical Inventions. McGraw-Hill.

Veblen, T. (1994 [1899]). The Theory of the Leisure Class. Dover.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5380/nocsi.v0i1.91158

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.