Science, technologie et innovation

Science, Technology and Innovation

BENOÎT GODIN

The Idea 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 social science like history, sociology, management and economics. Innovation is also a central idea in the popular imaginary, in the media and in public policy. In summary innovation has become the emblem of the modern society, and a panacea for resolving many problems.

This suggests three questions. First, why has innovation acquired such a central place in our society or, put differently, where precisely does the idea of innovation come from? Second, why is innovation spontaneously understood as technological innovation? Third, why is the idea of innovation often restricted to commercialized innovation?

To answer these questions, the project on the idea of innovation looks at innovation as a category and its historical development since the Middle Ages. It identifies the concepts that have defined novelty through history and that have led to innovation as a central category of modern society. More specifically, the project looks at:

1. the concepts involved for speaking about innovation: change, novelty, originality, invention, creativity, etc.
2. the meaning of the concepts developed.
3. the discourses held in the name of innovation.
4. the values involved in the debates.
5. the theories and the conceptual frameworks developed for explaining innovation.
6. the context out of which the category emerged.
7. the measurement of innovation.

Papers

B. Godin (2010), “Meddle Not With Them That Are Given to Change”: Innovation as Evil, Working Paper no. 6, Project on the Intellectual History of Innovation, Montreal: INRS. 46 p. Paper presented at 1) Workshop on “Rhetoric of Innovation in Contemporary Society”, University of Helsinki, Institute of Behavioral Sciences, 7-8 February 2010; 2) Public Understanding of Science Seminar, London School of Economics, 10 February 2010.

B. Godin (2010), Innovation Without the Word: William F. Ogburn’s Contribution to Technological Innovation Studies, Working Paper no. 5, Project on the Intellectual History of Innovation, Montreal : INRS. 56 p.

B. Godin (2009), National Innovation System (II): Industrialists and the Origins of an Idea, Working Paper no. 4, Project on the Intellectual History of Innovation, Montreal : INRS.

B. Godin (2010), National Innovation System: A Note on the Origins of a Concept, Working Paper, Project on the Intellectual History of Innovation, Montreal : INRS. 8 p.

B. Godin (2009), The Linear Model of Innovation (II): Maurice Holland and the Research Cycle, Working Paper no. 3, Project on the Intellectual History of Innovation, Montreal: INRS. Paper presented at the Seminar Series at Carnegie Mellon in Strategy, Entrepreneurship, and Technological Change, Pittsburg, 30 October 2008.

B. Godin (2008), In the Shadow of Schumpeter: W. Rupert Maclaurin and the Study of Technological Innovation, Paper no. 2, Project on the Intellectual History of Innovation. Published in Minerva, vol. 46 no 3, p. 343-360. Paper presented at :  1) Carnegie Mellon, Seminar Series in Strategy, Entrepreneurship, and Technological Change,  Pittsburg, 30 October 2008; 2) Imperial College/Science Museum, 22 May 2008, London, Great Britain.

B. Godin (2008), Innovation: the History of a Category, Paper no. 1, Project on the Intellectual History of Innovation, Montreal: INRS. 62 p. Paper presented at: 1) Polish Academy of Sciences, Committee for the Science, Warsaw, Poland, 2 December 2008; 2) Charles University, Department of Comparative History, Czechoslovakia, Prague, 26 November 2008; 3) « Governance of and Through Science : Notions, Categories, and Tools », EHESS, Paris, France, 26-27 May 2008; 4) Third PRIME/ENID International Conference, Oslo, Norway, 28-30 May 2008; 5) Finnish Society for Science and Technology Studies, Annual Seminar, 5 March 2009.

Forthcoming Papers

B. Godin, Innovation Studies: The Invention of a Specialty, Project on the Intellectual History of Innovation, INRS: Montreal.

B. Godin, 'Kainotomia': Political Thoughts on Innovation, from Xenophon to Machiavelli, Project on the Intellectual History of Innovation, INRS: Montreal.

B. Godin, Homer G. Barnett and Culture Change: A Student of Innovation among the Anthropologists, Project on the Intellectual History of Innovation, INRS: Montreal.

Related Papers

B. Godin (2007), National Innovation System: The System Approach in Historical Perspective, Project on the History and Sociology of STI Statistics, Working Paper no. 36, 34 p. Published in Science, Technology, and Human Values, vol. 34, no 4, 2009, p. 476-501. Paper presented at: Workshop on “The Changing Role of Universities in Innovation Systems”, Center for Advanced Studies, Norwegian Academy of Sciences, Norway, Oslo, 26-28 March 2008; 2) Workshop « Journée Jean-Jacques Salomon », Paris, France, 5 december 2008.

B. Godin (2005), The Linear Model of Innovation: The Historical Construction of an Analytical Framework, Project on the History and Sociology of STI Statistics, Working Paper no. 30, 35 p. Published in Science, Technology, and Human Values, 31 (6), November 2006: 639-667. Paper presented at:  1) Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT), Maastricht, Netherlands, 5 September 2006; 2) Fifth conference on Triple Hélix, Turin, Italy, 18-21 may 2005.

B. Godin (2002), The Rise of Innovation Surveys: Measuring a Fuzzy Concept, Project on the History and Sociology of STI Statistics, Paper no. 16, Communication presented at the International Conference in Honour of K. Pavitt "What We Know About Innovation", 13-15 November 2003, SPRU, University of Sussex, Brighton (UK).