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Technological and Social Change: For a Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Innovation Policies
Language: English
In the current world, the competition among global players principally bases upon technological innovation, which is the main tool to tackle the big challenges that are affecting societies across the world: climate change, overpopulation, access to water and food, education etc.
This implies the need for a strong interaction among scientific groups and communities that characterize for diverse languages, methodologies and representations of the world.
Furthermore, technological innovation per se is not sufficient, for the diffusion of new technological devices is not simply a matter of effective scientific research , but also of policy-making; so that, it also entails political, juridical, social and economic information, related to the territory target of the innovation. As a matter of fact, any innovation, no matter how effective it is, might face resistances, in a given territory, because of cultural prejudices, or juridical hurdles.
As a consequence strong management skills are necessary to coordinate these large flows of communication, as well as the interaction among different scientific communities and between science and society. This session bases upon the assumption that systemic sociology holds the know-how to develop multidisciplinary management skills and welcomes papers, both theoretical and empirical, that focus on innovation policies.