Technological Innovation: On the Origins and Development of an Inclusive Concept

Over the last several decades, many students of technology have tried to make sense of the concept of technology and its origins. However, nothing similar exists in the literature on "technological innovation," a phrase that emerged after World War II. This paper suggests that technological innovation is a counter-concept to science—and more particularly to basic research—as a dominant cultural value of the twentieth century. Technological innovation emerged as a phrase or concept because in discourse, action, and policy, it was useful to include in understandings of economic growth a larger number of people than just scientists and more activities than just science or basic research. Technological innovation is a total process. "It integrates what would otherwise be separate activities and inquiries in order to redraw the intellectual world that society adopts" (Roy Harris, The Semantics of Science, [p. xi]).