Abstract
This paper discusses the literature on `techno-economic networks'
(TENs) and `techno-economic paradigms' (TEPs). The object of study
in both literatures is some form of combination of the `technical'
and the `socio-economic'; the phrase `techno-economic' thus points
to the need to see that the widest variety of `actors' may be of
significance for particular innovations. The literature on TENs has
focused mainly on describing the emergence and stabilisation of specific
innovations; the literature on TEPs has focused more on the issues
and problems arising from the diffusion of highly `pervasive' generic
technologies. The two perspectives thus constitute different ends
of a spectrum regarding the formulation of research and policy issues.
The central concern of this paper is to illustrate that, by maintaining
a focus on innovation and by shifting theoretical registers between
the TEN and TEP perspectives, a number of issues emerge around what
we call the `meso-level techno-economic': at the level of the nation,
of national governments, of specific firms and organisations of particular
scientific and technological disciplines, or of particular market
arrangements and patterns of consumption. The paper explores some
of the applications of the approaches to technological development
in relation to the environment and constructive technology assessment
(CTA); it concludes by presenting a possible framework for analysis
of the meso-level.
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