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Markets, Sciences, and the Dynamics of Technological Change

Loet Leydesdorff

• short introduction of the readings, week by week, course 2002-2003
• Introduction to the Course of 1996-1997 (Peter v.d. Besselaar)

Format:          seminars, student presentations
Assessment:    on the basis of  take-home exams and/or term paper
Credit:            7 points UvA (= 10 ECTS credits), level 2/3
Time:               second trimester Mondays 1 pm - 3 pm and Thursdays 11 am - 1 pm

(twice a week); first meeting: Monday, January 6, 2002

Place:             on Mondays: Nieuwe Prinsengracht 130, room G. 003

on Thursdays: Plantage Muidergracht 24, rooms P 014 and P 018

on Monday, February 10, 11 am - 1 pm (NB!):

Oost-Indisch Huis, Kloveniersburgwal 48, room D 302 (computer practicum)

Registration:   Studieweb, OWI-PSCW, OWI-Informatiewetenschappen or ISHSS office

Please, sign also in for this course at http://blackboard.ic.uva.nl/ using your student number and password.

The UvA-helpdesk for Blackboard can be found at 020-525 2527.

Literature:      A copy of the literature will be made available for photocopying

(see the weekly program below)

ISIS-code:       SW301067

THEME of the course:

The development of academic research capacities carries within itself the seeds of future economic and social development in the form of human capital, tacit knowledge, and intellectual property. Channeling knowledge flows into new sources of technological innovation has become an academic task, changing the structure and function of the university. Realizing the benefits of this potential resource occurs through organizational innovations such as technology transfer offices, incubator facilities, and research centers with industrial participation. The change in emphasis from a sole concentration on the production and dissemination of knowledge to technology transfer and firm formation places the university in a new alignment with the productive sector.

The new social contract between the university and the larger society is being negotiated in much more specific terms than the old one. The former contract was based on a linear model of innovation, presuming only long-term contributions of academic knowledge to the economy. Now both long- and short-term contributions are seen to be possible, based on examples of firm-formation and research contracts in fields such as biotechnology and computer science. A spiral model of innovation is required to capture multiple reciprocal linkages at different stages of the capitalization of knowledge.

What dynamics are involved? How are industrial and R&D policies affected? Should government strategies focus on channels of information in the hope of creating systematically effective and dynamic interdependencies without becoming directly involved in specific technologies or projects? Alternatively, should government policies focus on encouraging and subsidizing strategic alliances among companies and universities to overcome blockages or ‘reverse salients’ in particular technologies with significance for future product development?

These questions require an analysis of technological developments and such analyses are offered in economic theories of innovation, sociology of organizations, and science and technology studies. How do we integrate the results of the different perspectives? The goal of this course is to give an analytical introduction to the various theoretical approaches to technology, by studying and discussing original articles from the various traditions, and to analyze their consequences for the design of empirical research. Studies which conceptualize technological development in terms of “technological trajectories”, “networks,” and “systems” are compared. We also address the question of how complex systems can channel and retain information. For that purpose, models of technological change will be discussed, and students will be given the opportunity to simulate some models on the computer. Consequences of these various approaches for the possibilities of technology policy and technology assessment can be discussed.

Week 1 Questioning technology

Monday, Jan. 6
- Introduction

Thursday, Jan. 9
- Noble, David F., The wedding of science to the useful arts, in: America by Design. Science, Technology and the Rise of Corporate Imperialism (New York: Knopf, 1977), pp. 3-19.

• What kinds of factors, according to Noble, affect technological systems?
• Give some historical examples to support your response to the previous question.

- Gibbons, Michael, et al., Evolution of Knowledge Production, Chapter 1 of The New Production of Knowledge (London, etc.: Sage, 1994), pp. 17-45.

• List the characteristic features of Mode 1 and Mode 2 knowledge production types.
• How is the process of communication different in Mode 1 and Mode 2 type science?
• What is the unit of analysis being discussed?

- Sahal, Devendra, Alternative conceptions of technology, Research Policy 10 (1981) 2-24.

• Try to clarify the differences and/or similarities between the three approaches addressed in this article by using a concrete innovation as an example, e.g. the robot. What would each approach imply in terms of, for example, analytical categories and/or empirical research?

Week 2: Theoretical perspectives: trajectory approaches

Monday, Jan. 13
- Rosenberg, Nathan, The direction of technological change: inducement mechanisms and focusing devices. Pp. 108-25 in: Perspectives on Technology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976).

• Rosenberg feels that economic forces are insufficient to explain technological innovation; what explanation does he give?
• Can you provide other examples of ‘inducement mechanisms’ and ‘focusing devices’?
• What can one learn about technology policy from Rosenberg’s article?

- Dosi, Giovanni, Technological paradigms and technological trajectories, Research Policy 11 (1982) 147-162.

• How can the aircraft’s development from the DC 3 to the DC 10 be cited as an example of a trajectory if one has a combustion engine and the other a jet engine?
• Some argue that technological trajectories can only be distinguished with hindsight, since in the middle of a development process many options are available. Would you agree with such an argument? Can you explain the difference between these two perspectives?
• Does Dosi think that market mechanisms play an important role in determining technological direction? Why or why not?

Thursday, Jan. 16
- Sahal, Devendra, Technological guideposts and innovation avenues, Research Policy 14 (1985) 61-82.

•  In one paragraph briefly sketch an overview of the process of technological development as Sahal describes it.
•  Sahal mentions a few policy implications resulting from his argument in the last paragraph of the article. Try to list a few more.

- Nelson, Richard R., Economic Growth via the Coevolution of Technology and Institutions, pp. 21-32 in: Loet Leydesdorff and Peter van den Besselaar (eds.), Evolutionary Economics and Chaos Theory. New Directions in Technology Studies, (London: Pinter, 1994).

 

• What happens when technologies and the institutional frameworks of society ‘co-evolve’?
• What kinds of factors can influence technological evolution?

 

Week 3: Theoretical perspectives: Actor/network approaches

Monday, Jan. 20
- Callon, Michel, The sociology of an actor network: the case of the electric vehicle. Pp. 19-34 in: Michel Callon, John Law, Arie Rip (eds.), Mapping the dynamics of science and technology (London: MacMilllan, 1986).

• Explain how the construction and definition of ‘actor worlds’ can prompt the development of technological innovations.
• Why does Callon find it impossible to consider sociological and physical factors separately?

 

- Pinch, Trevor J. &  Wiebe E. Bijker, The social construction of facts and artifacts: or How the sociology of science and the sociology of technology might benefit from each other. Pp. 17-50 in: W. Bijker, T.P. Hughes, T. Pinch (eds.), The social construction of technological systems (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1987).

• This article describes how the social environment can affect the solution of technical problems. Pinch and Bijker use the history of the bicycle to illustrate two ways in that this can be accomplished, what are they?
• Why can’t a linear model effectively illustrate innovation in a technological system?

Thursday, Jan. 23
- Hughes, Thomas P., The evolution of large technological systems. Pp. 51-82 in: Wiebe Bijker, Thomas P. Hughes, Trevor Pinch (eds), The social construction of technological systems (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1987).

• According to Hughes, how does the socio-economic environment determine problem choice during technological development?
• Why is interconnection of production and distribution in a system important for the production process?
• Regulations are policy instruments that can be used to benefit technological trajectories. Explain how this method was used to aid the introduction of electricity.
• Explain the concept ‘reverse salient’.

 

- Van Lente, Harro & Arie Rip, Expectations of Technological Developments: An Example of Prospective Structures to be Filled in by Agency, pp. 203-229 in: Cornelis Disco & Barend van der Meulen (Eds.), Getting New Technologies Together: Studies in Making Sociotechnical Order. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1998.

 

• These authors change the unit of analysis, don’t they? What is in this analysis considered as the unit of analysis?
• What is the evolving unit? How can one observe technological development from this perspective?
• Try to define the relation with the “Mode 2” discussion.
• This approach is sometimes distinguished as “radical constructivism” from “social constructivism”. What would be the implications?

 

Week 4: Economic determinants of technological development

Monday, Jan. 27
- Freeman, Chris and Perez, Carlota, Structural crises of adjustment, business cycles and investment behaviour. Pp. 38-66 in: Giovanni Dosi et al. (eds.), Technical Change and Economic Theory (London: Pinter, 1988).

• Summarize the basic theory on which this paper is based.
• What is large-scale diffusion of information technology in a society dependent upon?
• What roles do Freeman & Perez see technology playing in the economic sector?

 

- Schmookler, Joseph, Economic sources of inventive activity, Journal of Economic History 22 (1962) 1-20.

• According to Schmookler how is innovation created in a technological industry?
• What role does demand play in encouraging technological advance?

Thursday, Jan. 30
- Schumpeter, Joseph, The Process of Creative Destruction, in: Socialism, Capitalism and Democracy (London: Allen & Unwin, 1943), pp. 81-86.

• How can innovation be considered a destructive process?
• How does Schumpeter describe the relationship between technological developments and economic systems?

- Allen, Peter M., Evolutionary Complex Systems: Models of Technology Change, Pp. 1-18 in: Loet Leydesdorff and Peter van den Besselaar (eds.), Evolutionary Economics and Chaos Theory. New Directions in Technology Studies (London: Pinter, 1994).

• Allen sees technology as part of a complex human system. How does this system develop?
• Allen describes how technological developments create structures and organisation in technological systems. What effect will this have on future developments?

Week 5: First take-home exam

Monday, Feb. 3 opportunity for discussion about questions
Monday, Feb. 10 handing-in of exams

Week 5 / 6: Models of technological developments

Thursday, Feb. 6
- David, Paul A., Clio and the Economics of QWERTY, American Economic Review 75 (1985) 332-7.

• Give a definition for the term ‘locked in’.
• List three features that led to the QWERY keyboard becoming ‘locked in’ as the dominant keyboard.

- Loet Leydesdorff & Peter van den Besselaar, Competing Technologies: Lock-ins and Lock-outs, Proceedings of the American Institute of Physics, Vol. 437, pp. 309-323. (Woodbury, NY.: American Institute of Physics, 1998).

• Outline three possible technological trajectories described in this paper.
• Under what conditions can a technology that has been locked-in break out?

Monday, Feb. 10: Computer practicum: simulation models of technological change.

handing-in of exams

Please, begin reading the text by Freeman & Soete during the following weeks. Otherwise the schedule may lead to an overload of reading in the week of the second take-home tentamen.

Week 6: Techno-Sciences: Integration and Differentiation

Thursday, Feb. 13
- Bradshaw, George, & Marsha Lienert, The Invention of the Airplane, Proc. of the Thirteenth Ann. Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, August 7-10 (1991), pp. 605-10.

• Explain the difference between exploring ‘design space’ and ‘function space’ in the process of technological problem solving.
• How did use of the latter method help in the successful development of the airplane?

- Dits, Henk, & Guus Berkhout, Towards a Policy Framework for the Use of Knowledge in Innovation Systems, Journal of Technology Transfer 14 (1999), pp. 211-221.

• How do flows of knowledge outlined in innovation systems in this paper differ from the way linear models of innovation have conceptualised these flows?
• What policy implications does this model of knowledge flow have?

 

Monday, Feb. 17
- Rosenberg, Nathan, Why do firms do basic research (with their own money)? Research Policy 19 (1990), pp. 165-174.

• List several of the reasons Rosenberg cites for sectors not funding research with their own money.
• List the reasons he gives for sectors that do choose to fund research.

- Etzkowitz, Henry, & Loet Leydesdorff, The Dynamics of Innovation: From National Systems and “Mode 2” to a Triple Helix of University-Industry-Government Relations, Research Policy 29(2) (2000) 109-123.

• In a paragraph briefly outline the basic structure of the Triple Helix Model
• How are the functional differences (between sciences and markets) integrated with the institutional differences (between public universities and private industries)?
• How has this led to an emerging communications regime between universities, industries, and governments?

Week 7: National systems of innovation

Thursday, Feb. 20
- Lundvall, Bengt-Åke, Innovation as an interactive process: from user-producer interaction to the national system of innovation. Pp. 349-69 in: Giovanni Dosi et al. (eds.) Technical Change and Economic Theory (London: Pinter, 1988).

• What elements of the technological selection environment are most important according to this article?
• In terms of communication flow, how does Lundvall’s model differ from the traditional neo-classical model of technological change?

-Yamauchi, Ichizo, Long Range Strategic Planning in Japanese R&D, in: C. Freeman (ed.), Design, Innovation and Long Cycles in Economic Development (London: Pinter, 1986).

• Describe three government policies that helped Japan gain technological strength in the late 19th Century.
• Explain the key success factors that contributed to Japan’s economic growth after the Second World War.

Monday, Feb. 24
- Cooke, Philip, Introduction. The origins of the concept, pp. 2-25 in: H.-J.  Braczyk, P. Cooke, and  M. Heidenreich (Eds.) Regional Innovation Systems, (University College London Press, London/ Bristol PA, 1998).

• What is the difference between fordism and post-fordism type production paradigm?
• Cooke makes the suggestion that a shift from hierarchical ‘top down’ management of economy to a market system type is occurring. Give a brief description of each of these types of systems.
• What are interaction costs?

- Radosevic, Slavo, Summary of the Project: “Restructuring and Reintegration of Science and Technology Systems in Economies in Transition” (Sussex: SPRU, 1999).

• Radosevic discusses the need for strategic investment in science and technology in Eastern Europe. Explain the strategy he proposes.
• What are the three stages of learning?

Week 8: Specification with regard to sectors and industrial structure

Thursday, Feb. 27

- Barras, Richard, Interactive innovation in financial and business services: The vanguard of the service revolution, Research Policy, 19 (1990) 215-237.

• What is considered an innovation in the services?
• What is a ‘reverse innovation cycle’?
• How does it help us to understand innovation patterns in the service sector?

- McKelvey, Maureen D. Emerging Environments in Biotechnology. Pp. 60-70 in: Henry Etzkowitz & Loet Leydesdorff (Eds.), Universities and the Global Knowledge Economy: A Triple Helix of University-Industry-Government Relations. (London: Cassell Academic, 1997).

• Summarize the analytical scheme that McKelvey uses to understand the dynamics of knowledge generation.
• How has the role of knowledge producers changed throughout the history of modern biotechnology?

 

Monday, March 3

Leydesdorff, Loet, & Élaine Gauthier, The Evaluation of Policy Priority Areas by means of Scientometric Methods, Research Policy 25 (1996), 431-450.

 

·        In terms of science policy, how are Canada and the Netherlands similar? How are they different?

·        What is the main finding of this research paper?

·        How do the authors explain the differences in effectiveness of government technology policy in the two countries?

 

- Dolfsma, Wilfred, The Process of New Service Development—Issues of Formalization and Appropriability, Chapter 3 in: J.P.J. de Jong, A. Bruins, W. Dolfsma and J. Meijaard (2002). Innovation in Service Industries (Zoetermeer: EIM, forthcoming).

 

• Can you to formulate how a technology policy focusing on the service sector might have to differ from an industrial oriented stimulation policy?
• Do you expect a coupling between the sectorial differentiation and the geographic one? How does this relate to globalization? Or should we rather conceptualize the changes in terms of a global division of labour?

 

Week 9: Second take-home exam
(Thursday, March 6)

Week 10: Social contexts of technological innovations

Monday, March 10
- Hippel, E. von, The dominant role of users in the scientific instrument innovation process, Research Policy 5 (1976), 212-239

• Scientific Instruments: is this user-innovation or science push?
• For Von Hippel, user need should play what role in the innovation process to ensure technological success?

- Sörensen, Knut, Towards a Feminized Technology? Gendered Values in the Construction of Technology, Social Studies of Science 22 (1992) 5-31.

• In what areas does Sörensen find that gender differences matter?
• In what way does Sörensen suggest that female influence could be increased?

 

Thursday, March 13
- Robin Cowan and Dominique Foray, “The Economics of Codification and the Diffusion of Knowledge,” Industrial and Corporate Change 6 (1997) 595-622.

• Give a short explanation of the process of codification.
• How can technological developments be viewed as a method of codifying knowledge?
• How can codification act as a selection mechanism for new technologies?

- Tschang, F. Ted, The Indian Software Industry: The Role of Government, Industry and the Universities in Fostering Skills and Organizations, International Workshop on Science, Technology and Society: Lessons and Challenges. National University of Singapore, April 19-20, 2002.

 

• Does the discussion about codes in the previous article relate to this one about skills? How?
• What can be considered as the selection mechanism on the technology in either case?

 

Week 11: Politics, institutions, and innovations

Monday, March 17
- Van den Belt, Henk and Arie Rip, The Nelson-Winter-Dosi model and synthetic dye chemistry. Pp. 135-158 in: Wiebe Bijker, Thomas P. Hughes, Trevor Pinch (eds.), The social construction of technological systems (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1987).

• Outline the argument against considering the Nelson-Winter-Dosi model as an evolutionary model?
• What are the implications of this argument for the model?
• Governmental policy (patent law) played a crucial role in the commencement of chemical technology. What would be the relevance of the idea of a ‘nexus’ for contemporary politics and/or for steering other sectors (e.g., the service sector)?

- René Kemp, Johan Schot, & Remco Hoogma, Regime Shifts to Sustainability Through Processes of Niche Formation: The Approach of Strategic Niche Management, Technology Analysis and Strategic Management 10 (1998) 175-195.

Thursday, March 20
- Peter Van den Besselaar, Democracy and Technological Change: Limits to Steering, in: R. Chatfield, S. Kuhn, M. Muller (Eds.), PDC 98 Proceedings of the Participatory Design Conference. Seattle, WA, USA, November 1998.

• Name several reasons why efforts at technological prediction could fail.
• Give several reasons to support the rejection of technological determinism.
• What is participatory design?

- Beck, Ulrich, From Industrial Society to the Risk Society: Questions of Survival, Social Structure and Ecological Enlightenment, Theory, Culture & Society 9 (1992) 97-123.

• How do the origins of industrial risk differ from those of naturally occurring risks?
• How is modern society protected against this kind of risk?
• How have some modern technologies subverted the foundations of this type of risk logic?

Third (final) exam questions

Please, hand in the answers to the final (take-home) exams on Monday, April 7, before 4 pm,
East Indian House (Kloveniersburgwal 48), my mailbox at Communication Studies (on the first floor).

Further (obligatory) reading:

* Chris Freeman and Luc Soete, The Economics of Industrial Innovation (London: Pinter, 1997), pp. 227-365. (These chapters discuss the micro- and the macro-economics of technological innovation. The remainder of the book is optional reading material.)

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