Technological Innovation as an Evolutionary Process (review)

On several occasions between 1994 and 1997 John Ziman led a group of nineteen scholars, including historians, sociologists, economists, psychologists, computer scientists, and educators, in studies of technological innovation as an evolutionary process. Now, as a product of those meetings, Ziman—a physicist known for his writings on the social dimensions of science and technology—gives us a well-edited and tightly organized book. The main topic is subdivided into five sections that cover evolutionary thinking, innovation and culture, invention as a process, institutionalized innovation, and technological change viewed in wide perspective. Instead of ending with a final essay, Ziman reassembled the contributors and asked them to draw conclusions from the book's twenty-one chapters. This they did in a brief, but illuminating, "end-word."

Epistemology · Evolutionary theory · Knowledge management · Perspective (graphical) · Process (computing) · Product (mathematics) · Product innovation · Social science · Sociology · Technological change · Technological evolution · Anthropology · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Economic and Technological Innovation · History of Science and Medicine · Philosophy · University-Industry-Government Innovation Models