220102 Innovation Cultures during the first Globalisation Wave (S) (SoSe 2008)

Anmerkungen:
Ob die Veranstalung als BLOCKSEMINAR oer semesterbegleitendes Seminarangeboten wird, kann in der Vorbesprechung entschieden werden. Fernerist es möglich das Semianr in DEUTSCHER Sprache abzuhalten, falls eineMehrheit der Studierenden das wünschen sollte.

Course Outline
The rapid technological change of the recent 200 years is often seen as the most remarkable development in human history. This development is seen as remarkable because of its speed and far reaching consequences for the entire globe. Technological innovations - foremost the steam engine - became the central symbolic representation of the industrial revolution and was often seen as one of the major causes for the deep social, economic and cultural changes that took place ever since. However, it became clear, that the paradigm of the ¿industrial revolution¿, which dominated historical research for a long time, failed to explain many developments of the recent 200 years. The cause-consequence relation of technological innovations, social change and economic growth has therefore increasingly been questioned, while theoretical models to explain the technical change have long time been underdeveloped. Classical economics one the one hand paid a lot of attention to technical change, neoclassical economics on the other hand excluded it as being exogenously determined from its theory. Only recently evolutionary economics and new quantitative research produced based on a new theoretical approach a different picture of the events that dominated our ideas of the late 18th and 19th century. Is there a relation between technological change and market economy? Or more precisely: how does that relation work? Which institutions and market structure are beneficial for which type of technical change? Do regions or nations have a comparative advantage in some innovation sequences? What is the role of public spending for technical change? Does the company size influence the type of technological innovation? What is the role of the entrepreneur? And how does science, education and innovation interact?
In the seminar new theories about technological and institutional change will be explored and presented by the participants, in order to develop a concept of technical change in historical perspective, which is embedded in the accompanying social, economic and cultural changes of the second economic revolution.

Literature
Robert Boyer: The Embedded Innovation Systems of Germany and Japan. In: Kozo Yamamura and Wolfgang Streeck (eds.): The End of Diversity? Prospects for German and Japanese Capitalism. New York 2003; Giovanni Dosi (et al.): Technology and enterprise in a historical perspective. Oxford 1992; G. Dosi / Keith Pavitt / Luc Soete: The economics of technical change and international trade. New York 1991; G. Dosi (ed.): Technical change and economic theory. London 1988; Renato Giannetti / Michelangelo Vasta: Evolution of Italian Enterprise in the 20th Century. New York 2006; Zvi Griliches: R&D and productivity. Chicago 1998; Z. Griliches: Technology, education and productivity. Oxford 1988; Z.Griliches: R&D, patents and productivity. Chicago 1984; Kees Gispen: New profession, old order: engineers and German society, 1815 - 1914 . ¿ Cambridge 1989; W. König, H. Poser, W. Radtke u. W. H. Schnell (Ed.): Technological Development, Society and State. Western and Chinese Civilizations in Comparison. Singapore 1991; David Mowery/ Nathan Rosenberg: Paths of innovation. Cambridge 1999; Joel Moykr: The lever of riches : technological creativity and economic progress. New York 1990; Douglass North: Institutions, institutional change and economic performance. Cambridge 1991; Richard Nelson: Understanding technical change as an evolutionary process. Amsterdam 1987; Sidney Pollard: Peaceful conquest : the industrialization of Europe 1760 ¿ 1970. Oxford 1981; Nathan Rosenberg: How the West grew rich. New York 1986; Nathan Rosenberg: Exploring the black box. Cambridge 1994; Jacob Schmookler: Patents, invention and economic change: Cambridge Mass. 1972; Wolfgang Streeck and Kathleen Thelen (eds.): Beyond Continuity: Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies. Oxford 2005; Ulrich Wengenroth: Science, Technology, and Industry, in: David Cahan (Eds.), From Natural Philosophy to the Sciences. Writing the History of Nineteenth-Century Science, Chicago 2003, p. 221-253; Ulrich Wengenroth: Small-Scale Business in Germany: The Flexible Element of Economic Growth, in: Konosuke Odaka und Minoru Sawai (Eds.), Small Firms, Large Concerns. The Development of Small Business in Comparative Perspective, Oxford 1999, p. 117-139; Ulrich Wengenroth: Germany: Competition abroad - cooperation at home, 1870-1990, in: Alfred D. Chandler, jr., Franco Amatori, Takashi Hikino (Eds.), Big business and the wealth of nations, New York 1997, p. 139-175; Richard Winter: Institutions Supporting Technical Change in the United States. In: G. Dosi et al. (Eds.), Technical Change and Economic Theory. London 1988, p. 312-329; R. Winter: A Retrospective. In: Richard R. Nelson (Ed.), National Innovation Systems. A Comparative Analysis. Oxford 1993, p.505¿524; R. Winter: 1994: The Coevolution of Technologies and Institutions. In: Richard W. England (Ed.), Evolutionary Concepts in Contemporary Economics. Ann Arbor 1994, p. 139-156; R. Nelson / N. Rosenberg, 1993: Technical Innovation and National Systems. In: R. Nelson (Ed.), National Innovation Systems. A Comparative Analysis.Oxford, p.3¿21.

Note
The first meeting will take place, February, the 12th. In this meeting the seminar plan is going to be presented and work tasks (presentations and papers) will be distributed. Participation at the first meeting is obligatory!
Seminar language is English.

Date
Tuesday, 8.30. 15.4.2008