BEYOND THE DIGITAL ECONOMY: A PERSPECTIVE ON INNOVATION FOR THE LEARNING SOCIETY

Abstract In view of the current socio-economic context, in which innovation is a key driving force for the sustainable development, which challenges are facing education and research to enhance and nurture innovation and better contribute to help developing and exploiting engineering, science, and technology? This broad question has motivated the work behind the present work, which reviews the strongest themes of the Third International Conference on Technology Policy and Innovation (ICTPI), which was held in Austin, TX, in August of 1999. Under the broad designation of “creating value for the 21st century in the globalized learning economy,” the Conference brought together a range of experts to discuss technology policy and the management of innovation in a context much influenced by a dynamic of change and a necessary balance between the creation and diffusion of knowledge. While the idea of inclusive development developed in previous Conferences entails a process of shared prosperity across the globe following local specific conditions, it is crucial to understand both the features of knowledge-induced growth in rich countries, as well as the challenges and opportunities for late-industrialized and less developed countries. Thus, this special issue includes a set of extended contributions to the Austin conference that are largely grounded on empirical experiences of different regional and national contexts. The aim of this introductory paper is to set the stage for these contributions, with an original contribution on possible roles for science and technology policy in the globalized economy. While much attention has been devoted to digital technologies, a more fundamental change at the start of the new millennium is the increasing importance of knowledge for economic prosperity and the emergence of a learning society. The analysis shows that innovation should be understood as a broad social and economic activity within the framework of that society: it should transcend any specific technology, even if revolutionary, and should be tied to attitudes and behaviors oriented towards the exploitation of change by adding value.

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