Envisioning the Future

Abstract

Throughout the book, we have examined the multiple and multi-level connections and ties between gender and innovations, and different manifestations of these relations and connections in the new economy. The example cases taken range from the very early innovations that had direct effects on gendered everyday lives and on the recent developments in personal innovations, from gaming to platforms and complex gendered innovations with immaterial digital and material inventions. For most large corporations, the prevailing corporate culture is seldom an inventive culture as such. An inventive culture, however, carries possibilities for new and radical innovations and in their possibly revolutionary abilities to change everyday lives and practices. The possibilities for new breakthroughs and economic gains in an employee-driven corporate innovation culture are immense. The question of gender and innovations becomes defined anew, as employee-driven innovations in platforms take place in broader organizational and global contexts. This book has synthesized knowledge on the initiatives and mechanisms that contribute to improved understanding of gender and innovations. This chapter draws together and summarizes some of the main issues discussed throughout the book in the previous chapters.