Innovation Monomania

Abstract

Innovation has become the buzzword in a number of policy areas including research policy, economic policy and environmental policy. In the struggle against economic stagnation, innovation policies, sometimes in alliance with the academic field of innovation studies, promote dreams about institutions and technologies in which change can never be turned into nightmares. The ambition of this book is, however, to point to a number of alternative models and theories within the social sciences that describe or explain dynamics between institutions and technologies. The purpose is to demonstrate the rich multitude of ideas about technology, institution and change beyond innovation in the context of liberal markets.