Abstract
Dealing with the ramifications of technological change is one of the most challenging problems confronting democratic societies. The fundamental nature of the challenge can be described very succinctly: On the one hand, there is the irrefutable generalization that technical and organizational innovations are the main driving forces of economic growth and improved standards of living; and on the other hand, there is the equally irrefutable fact that this historical generalization provides little, if any, guidance for prediction or social action concerning particular technologies. In economic terms, there exists no epistemological link between macroeconomic “laws” of growth (derived from empirical hindsight) and the micro- and mesoeconomic phenomena associated with the technological-change process.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Aharoni, Y. (1981), The No-Risk Society, Chatham, NJ, Chatham House Publishers.
Austin, J.H. (1978), Chase, Chance and Creativity: The Lucky Art of Novelty, New York, Columbia University Press.
Ayres, R.U. (1988), “Self-organization in biology and economics,” Research Report 88–1, Laxenburg, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.
Boulding, K. (1981), Evolutionary Economics, Beverly Hills, CA, Sage Publications.
Brodley, C.E., T. Lane and T.M. Stough (1999), “Knowledge discovery and data mining,” American Scientist, 87 /1, 54–61.
Buchanan, J., R. Tollison and G. Tullock (eds.), Toward a Theory of the Rent-Seeking Society,College Station, TX, Texas AandM University Press.
Bunge, M. (1985), Treatise on Basic Philsophy, Vol. 7, Part I1: Philosophy of Science and Technology, Dordrecht/Boston, MA, D. Reidel.
Bunge, M. (1996), Finding Philosophy in Social Science, New Haven, CT,: Yale University Press.
Bunge, M. (1998), Social Science under Debate: A Philosophical Perspective, Toronto, University of Toronto Press.
De Greene, K.B. (1973), Sociotechnical Systems: Factors in Analysis, Design, and Management, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice-Hall.
De Jouvenel, B. (1967), The Art of Conjecture, New York, Basic Books.
Feldman, E.J. (1985), Concorde and Dissent, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Foster, R.N. (1986), Innovation: The Attacker’s Advantage, New York, Summit Press. French-Constant, R.H. (1995), “The zap trap”, The Sciences, 35 /2, 31–5.
Götschl, J. (1990), “Zur philosophischen Bedeutung des Paradigmas der Selbstorganisation für den Zusammenhang von Naturverständnis und Selbstverständnis”, in: Krohn, W. and Köppers (eds.), Selbstorganisation: Aspekte einer wissenschaftlichen Revolution, Braunschweig/Wiesbaden, Vieweg
Gordon, T.J. (1969), “The feedback between technology and values,” in: Baier, K. and N. Rescher (eds.), Values and the Future, New York, Free Press.
Grad, F.B., G.W. Rathjens and A.J. Rosenthal, Environmental Control: Priorities, Politics, and the Law,New York, Columbia University Press.
Hughes, T.P. (1998), Rescuing Prometheus, New York, Pantheon Books.
Jackson, P.M. (1988), “The role of government in changing industrial societies: a Schumpeter perspective,” in: H. Hanusch (ed.), Evolutionary Economics, Ch. 9.
Jewkes, J., D. Sawers and A. Stillerman (1969), The Sources of Invention, 2nd edn., New York, Norton.
Kantrowitz, A. (1975), “Controlling technology democratically,” American Scientist, 63/5, 505–9. Kidder, T. (1981), The Soul of a New Machine, Boston, MA, Atlantic Monthly Press.
Kleinknecht, A. (1987), Innovation Patterns in Crisis and Prosperity: Schumpeter’s Long Cycle
Reconsidered,London, Macmillan.
Knight, F. H. (1921), Risk, Uncertainty and Profit, Boston, MA, Houghton Mifflin.
Lamberton, D.M. (1996), “Infrastructure: a nebulous and overworked construct?” International Journal of Technology Management, 12/5–6, 696–703.
Machlup, F. (1982), “Semantic quirks in the study of information,” in: Machlup, F. and U. Mansfield (eds.), The Study of Information: Interdisciplinary Messages, New York: Wiley, 641–71.
March, J.G. and Z. Shapira, “Managerial perspectives on risk and risk taking,” Management Science,33/11, 1404–18.
Marshall, A. (1890), Principles of Economics, London, Macmillan.
Meredith, J. and S.J. Mantel, Jr., (1994) Project Management, 3rd edn. New York, Wiley. Morrison, E. (1966), Men, Machines, and Modern Times, Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.
Nelson, R.N. (1987), Understanding Technical Change as an Evolutionary Process, Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Nelson, R.N. and S.G. Winter (1982), An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press.
North, D.C. (1991), “Institutions,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 5 /1, 971–1012.
Peirce, W.S. (1975), “The effects of technological change: exploring successive ripples”, in: Gold, B. (ed.), Technological Change: Economics, Management and Environment, Oxford, Pergamon.
Rapoport, A. (1956), “The diffusion problem in mass behavior,” General Systems Yearbook, 15260.
Rosegger, G. (1990), “Aspects of the life cycle in industry and trade”, in: Vasko, T., R.U. Ayres and L. Fontvieille (eds.), Life Cycles and Long Waves, Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems, Berlin/New York, Springer.
Rosegger, G. (1991), “The benefits and costs of international cooperation in mature industries: an American perspective,” International Journal of Technology Management, Special Issue on the Role of Technology in Corporate Policy, 256–73.
Rosegger, G. (1991a), “Advances in information technology and the innovation strategies of firms”, Prometheus, 9 /1, 5–20.
Rosegger, G. (1995), “Technical change without humans: innovation in the neoclassical economic theory”, in: J. Götschl (ed.), Revolutionary Changes in Understanding Man and Society, Dordrecht/Boston/London, Kluwer, 39–51.
Rosegger, G. (1996), The Economics of Production and Innovation: An Industrial Perspective, 3rd edn., Oxford, Butterworth-Heinemann.
Rosegger, G. and R.N. Baird (1987), “Entry and exit of makes in the automobile industry, 18951960: an international comparison”, OMEGA, International Journal of Management Science, 15 /2, 93–102.
Rosegger, G. and S.J. Mantel, Jr. (1995), “The supervision and evaluation of innovation projects”, Technology Management, 2 /1995, 68–77.
Schumpeter, J.A. (1934), The Theory of Economic Development, translation of Die Theorie der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung (1912), Boston, Harvard University Press.
Shannon, C.E. and W. Weaver (1949), The Mathematical Theory of Communication, Urbana, IL, University of Illinois Press.
Shulman, S. (1999), “Patent absurdities”, The Sciences, 39 /1, 30–3.
Tassey, G. (1992), Technology Infrastructure and Competitive Position, Norwell, MA, Kluwer. Tenner, E. (1996), Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences, New York, Alfred A. Knopf.
Tierney, J. (1982), “Take the A-plane”, Science 82, Jan.-Feb., 46–55.
Utterback, J.M. (1994), Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation, Boston, MA, Harvard Business School Press.
Van Duijn, J.J. (1983), The Long Wave in Economic Life, London, Allen and Unwin.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2001 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rosegger, G. (2001). Aspects of Uncertainty and Complexity in Technologies and Technosystems. In: Götschl, J. (eds) Evolution and Progress in Democracies. Theory and Decision Library, vol 31. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1504-1_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1504-1_7
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-5842-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-1504-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive