Innovation

Innovation is a major focus within contemporary political and economic debates. In this entry, we discuss STS’ perspective on innovation and how it differs from other disciplines, including STS’ sister field Innovation Studies. We present a brief historical introduction to innovation theory, followed by several salient STS research approaches to innovation, including user studies, contextualization, critiques of innovation models, the normative dimensions of innovation-centric capitalism, as well as current trends towards more inclusive and responsible forms of innovation. We argue that STS’ attention to a pluralistic vision of the contexts, conditions and concerns of innovation is needed more than ever.