The dominant tendency to place innovation as the backbone of any social, cultural or political change is based on a highly biased view of technology and its historical evolution. The focus on innovation obscures key aspects of the social embeddedness of technology - use and users, maintenance, repair, production - and obscures the immense relevance of mundane technologies and infrastructures. The ideology of innovation propagates a narrow, deterministic and fatalistic conception of technology which, despite its apparent neutrality and illusory aseptic character, has become the last resort of the neoliberal project and the dying mantra of growth and development. In its name, profound transformations are being carried out in such important areas as education at all levels, scientific research and culture, in most cases with devastating effects.
“This highly original critique of the ideology of innovation explains why we keep failing to address major challenges of our societies. Aibar convincingly argues for new ecologies of radical imagination around technology, pointing to new paths of social transformation.”
Wiebe E. Bijker, professor of Technology & Society, Maastricht University
See more: https://www.nedediciones.com/ficha.aspx?cod=2098
Published: 02/09/2024