Epilogue: systemic sociology and innovation

ABSTRACT

This short note provides a few conclusive considerations on theoretical approaches to innovation studies, from the scope of the works that appeared in the monographic issue of International Review of Sociology: 'Innovation and Sociological Theory'. Namely, the focus is on the relationship between the actors in charge of implementing an innovation process and the social/cultural structure of the target population. Within this framework, the theoretical approach that best fits to the complexity and the uncertainty related to this field of study, is Systemic Sociology.

KEYWORDS:

• Innovation
• sociological theory
• systemic theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. It is important to notice that literature reports several cases of political and legal innovation, not related to any new technology (Conger, 1974; Howaldt, Kesselring, Kopp, & Schwarz, 2014; Membretti, 2007) it is also worth mentioning Avelino et al.’s work (2017), where social innovation appears as a strategy to tackle the reduction of traditional welfare.

2. Within this framework, the main problem is that, while scientific advances are occurring apace, they rarely attract the general public’s interest: too long is the cognitive distance between specialized researchers and general audiences for the latter to show any interest (Latour, 1987; Nowotny, Scott, & Gibbons, 2001). Contemporary scientific activity takes place in a ‘novel environment in which knowledge flows more easily across disciplinary boundaries, human resources are more mobile, and the organization of research more open and flexible’ (Gibbons et al., 1994, p. 20). This makes it very difficult to give positive representations of scientific activity as a whole, as the general public have no idea if science is actually able to tackle economic, health or environmental issues and professional researchers are suffering a slow but continuous loss of social prestige.

This scenario often merges with a peculiarity in the cultural structures in Western societies: positivistic expectations of science. As a matter of fact, this is the institution that is supposed to provide endless knowledge and progress for the whole of humankind. No matter how long it will take, science will highlight all the mysteries in the natural world and will be able to turn this knowledge into wealth and happiness for all: thanks to applied science, poverty, starvation, and illness will sooner or later disappear from the earth.

This mix of lack of knowledge and excessive expectations, makes it very difficult to give positive representations of scientific activity as a whole.

Much easier is to understand the mistrust in political and economic institutions: in a globally diffused hostility towards political authorities that need to respect supranational capitalism, the suspect can be strong among citizens that an innovation process is the fruit of an agreement with any private company, rather than a decision for the common good.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Massimiliano Ruzzeddu

Massimiliano Ruzzeddu is Tenured Researcher at University Niccolò Cusano in Rome.He is Vice-President of World Complexity Science Academy. He is co-director of WCSA Book Series di Cambridge Scholars Publishing and Honorary Editor of the journal System Research and Behavioral Science (Wiley). He authored several scientific works in Epistemology of Social Science and Sociological Theory. Recently, he edited together with prof. Andrea Millefiorini the book Between Rationality and Irrationality, Harmattan, Paris.

Emilia Ferone

Emilia Ferone, PhD, Research Fellow at D’Annunzio University, Chieti- Pescara, Italy. Vice president of the WCSA – World Complexity Science Academy. Scientific Director of book series Political, Juridical and Social Sciences edited by Esculapio, Italy. She is the author of numerous national and international scientific publications, among them: Academic Capitalism in the European University, in Fabó E., Ferone E., Ming J. C. (eds), Systemic Actions in Complex Scenarios, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Cambridge 2017, With Stuppia L., Pitasi A., Manzoli L., Ruzzeddu M., The Infector Stigma: Centralizing Health Policies in an Age of Global Migration Flows, in Hassan Qudrat-Ullah Peter Tsasis (Eds.) Innovative Healthcare Systems for the twenty-first Century, pp. 141–166, Springer, 2017, Regole e comunicazione del Capitalismo Accademico, Loffredo, Napoli 2013.