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The Gifts of Athena: Historical Origins of the Knowledge Economy

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... Models of both Understanding and Operations regime in our paper (defined in the next paragraph) utilize the abstraction that knowledge is created by probabilistically 1 combining existing knowledge made available by analogical transfer. Vincenti (1990), and Mokyr (2002) take the view that scientific and technological knowledge can be classified into descriptive (Understanding) and prescriptive (Operations) knowledge 2 regimes. The Understanding regime can be seen as a body of 'what' knowledge and includes scientific principles and explanations, natural regularities, materials properties, and physical constants. ...
... An important aspect of design and invention is the cooperative interaction between Understanding and Operations regimes (Musson, 1972, Musson andRobinson 1989). Using a historical perspective, Mokyr (2002) has carefully observed that a synergistic exchange between the two has been occurring, where each enables the other. The contribution of Understanding to Operations is well known: it provides principles, and regularities of natural effects, including new ones, in the form of predictive equations, and descriptive facts, such as material properties. ...
... The overall architecture of the model is shown in Figure 2. Based on the work of Vincenti (1990) and Mokyr (2002) that we discussed earlier, we classify scientific and technical knowledge into Understanding and Operations regimes. We further split the Operations regime into idea and artifact sub-regimes where non-physical representation of artifacts are in the idea sub-regime. ...
Preprint
Functional technical performance usually follows an exponential dependence on time but the rate of change (the exponent) varies greatly among technological domains. This paper presents a simple model that provides an explanatory foundation for these phenomena based upon the inventive design process. The model assumes that invention - novel and useful design- arises through probabilistic analogical transfers that combine existing knowledge by combining existing individual operational ideas to arrive at new individual operating ideas. The continuing production of individual operating ideas relies upon injection of new basic individual operating ideas that occurs through coupling of science and technology simulations. The individual operational ideas that result from this process are then modeled as being assimilated in components of artifacts characteristic of a technological domain. According to the model, two effects (differences in interactions among components for different domains and differences in scaling laws for different domains) account for the differences found in improvement rates among domains whereas the analogical transfer process is the source of the exponential behavior. The model is supported by a number of known empirical facts: further empirical research is suggested to independently assess further predictions made by the model.
... The role of advances in science, in particular, has been overemphasized by the proponents of the linear model of innovation (Bush, 1945), then assessed more soberly by economic historians and innovation scholars (Bruland and Mowery 2006), and most recently stressed again in empirical research (e.g., Arora, 2022). However, the relationship between science and technology might actually be even more complicated if, as some authors argue, the positive effects work both ways, i.e., if the development of new technological knowledge enhances the progress in scientific research (Mokyr, 2002;Rosenberg, 2004). Supporting this hypothesis empirically would not only be interesting from a scholarly perspective, but also from the science, technology and innovation (STI) policy point of view, because of the implied additional benefits of industrial innovation efforts. ...
... While the basic classification of research into basic research, applied research and experimental development, popularized by the OECD (2015), has proven useful in empirical studies and is well established in the literature, it refers to activity rather than to knowledge. To think about how knowledge itself differs across types of outcomes and contributors, it might be more useful to start from the analytical approach proposed by Mokyr (2002). He offers a theory of "useful knowledge" and draws a distinction between "propositional knowledge" and "prescriptive knowledge". ...
... However, there are also positive feedbacks from prescriptive knowledge to propositional knowledge (Mokyr, 2002;Rosenberg, 2004). Firstly, improved techniques strengthen the confidence in propositional knowledge underlying them, leading to further work in the field, thanks to increased interest of the researchers and better funding from the private sector and the government. ...
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While the contribution of science to technological progress has been empirically confirmed, the literature looking at the positive feedback from technology to science remains limited, because of the constrained citation linkages. We apply a novel machine-learning-based method to attribute 2.5 million scientific articles to the categories of WIPO patent taxonomy. We then employ Granger causality analysis to study the coevolution of technological and scientific knowledge over more than 25 years. We demonstrate that the evolution of scientific output is a good predictor of the evolution of technology production, while the opposite effect is weaker. Looking at individual WIPO technology fields, we find significant effects in about one-third of categories.
... 2 Disentangling inherited human capital from nepotism is important as their social and economic implications are fundamentally different: while dynasties based on inherited human capital can reflect meritocracy and increase productivity, nepotism leads to a misallocation of talent. 3 Such misallocation is specially harmful in high-talent markets (Murphy et al., 1991;Hsieh et al., 2019), affecting the production of ideas, upper-tail human capital, technological progress, and economic growth (Mokyr, 2002). ...
... Third, upper-tail human capital, such as knowledge produced at universities and academies, has been deemed important for the rise of new Science (Mokyr (2002), Mokyr (2016), ) and the Industrial Revolution (Galor and Moav (2002), Squicciarini and Voigtlander (2015)). Our contribution to this literature is to provide the first estimate of the intergenerational elasticity of upper-tail human capital before the 8 Examples are doctors (Lentz & Laband, 1989), lawyers (Laband & Lentz, 1992;Raitano & Francesco, 2018), politicians (Dal Bó et al., 2009), inventors (Bell et al., 2018), CEOs (Pérez-González, 2006Bennedsen et al., 2007), pharmacists (Mocetti, 2016), self-employed (Dunn & Holtz-Eakin, 2000), and liberal professions (Aina & Nicoletti, 2018;Mocetti et al., 2018). ...
... Finally, this paper sheds new light on the production of upper-tail human capital and its importance for pre-industrial Europe's take-off (Cantoni and Yuchtman 2014, Mokyr 2002, Squicciarini and Voigtländer 2015, De la Croix, Doepke, and Mokyr 2018. We find that the transmission of human capital within the family and nepotism follow an inverse relationship over time. ...
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We have constructed a comprehensive database that traces the publications of father–son pairs in the premodern academic realm and examined the contribution of inherited human capital versus nepotism to occupational persistence. We find that human capital was strongly transmitted from parents to children and that nepotism declined when the misallocation of talent across professions incurred greater social costs. Specifically, nepotism was less common in fields experiencing rapid changes in the knowledge frontier, such as the sciences and within Protestant institutions. Most notably, nepotism sharply declined during the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, when departures from meritocracy arguably became both increasingly inefficient and socially intolerable.
... ARRIGHI, 2000ARRIGHI, , 2008BLAUT, 1993;POMERANZ, 2001), resultado da primeira revolução industrial e tecnológica e das sucessivas ondas de progresso técnico que a ela se seguiram (cf. PEREZ, 2009;MOKYR, 2002;FREEMAN E SOETE, 2008;MOWERY E ROSENBERG, 2005; HORN, RO-SENBAND, SMITH, 2010;DOSI, 2006). Com o advento do capitalismo industrial, um tipo específico de conhecimento, o conhecimento produtivamente aplicável, desempenhou papel central na transformação das diferenças entre culturas, sociedades e civilizações em desigualdades estruturantes do sistema capitalista mundial. ...
... Não basta que o conhecimento seja útil e confiável (cf. MOKYR, 2002;BRYANT, 2006;O'BRIEN, 2013), é preciso que ele seja capaz de tomar parte nos processos de acumulação capitalista. Tecnologia, no sentido aqui empregado, não passa, em última análise, de trabalho vivo objetificado e desapropriado de seus reais produtores em proveito da acumulação de capital pela classe capitalista. ...
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Resumo Este artigo apresenta aspectos históricos e conceituais para compreender as relações entre desenvolvimento, dependência tecnológica e novo neocolonialismo. Começo por definir o conceito de novo neocolonialismo para então discutir as relações históricas entre dependência tecnológica, acumulação capitalista e exploração extensiva do trabalho e da natureza na América Latina na formação da estrutura centro-periferia do capitalismo mundial, analisando a dependência tecnológica em suas dimensões estrutural, econômica e política. Proponho então um quadro conceitual para pensar as relações entre dependência tecnológica e o dilema tecnológico fundamental: a necessidade de escolher entre produzir (make) ou comprar (buy) tecnologia. O artigo conclui com uma discussão sobre as possibilidades de superação da dependência tecnológica. Palavras-Chave Desenvolvimento; tecnologia; dependência; autonomia; centro-periferia. Abstract This article presents historical and conceptual aspects of the relations between development, technological dependence, and new neocolonialism. I begin by defining the concept of new neocolonialism to discuss the historical relations between technological dependence, capitalist accumulation, and extensive exploitation of labor and nature in Latin America in the formation of the center-periphery structure of world capitalism, analyzing technological dependence in its structural dimensions, economic, and political. I then propose a conceptual framework for thinking about the relationship between technological dependence and the fundamental technological dilemma: the need to choose between making or buying technology. The article concludes with a discussion on the possibilities of peripheral countries overcoming technological dependency.
... In terms of what fosters innovation, two main strands appear in the literature, emphasizing either push or pull factors. In the first strand, the main driver of innovation is private returns, ensured by, for example, patent laws (Nordhaus, 1969), increased market demand (Lundvall, 1985), advances in useful knowledge (Mokyr, 2002), or the diffusion of General Purpose Technologies (Lipsey et al., 2005). In the second strand, innovation is instead driven by necessity, caused by, for example, declines in profits (Antonelli, 1989), changing factor price relations (Binswanger et al., 1978), or the need to overcome technical obstacles (Dahmén, 1942;Dosi, 1982). ...
... Instead of five long waves, economic historians 3 identify three major technical shifts in modern history, clustered around the steam engine at the end of the 1700s, the combustion engine and 3 The understanding centered on the Industrial Revolutions is one prominent, but not the only, interpretation of long-term societal change within the discipline of economic history. Other influential branches of the discipline emphasize the importance of institutions and institutional change (Sokoloff and Engerman, 2000;North et al., 2009), the importance of geography (Diamond, 1997;Sachs and Warner, 2001), various cultural aspects (Mokyr, 2002(Mokyr, , 2017McCloskey, 2016), and demography (Wrigley, 2016). electrification around the 1880s, and microelectronics and ICT from the 1970s (von Tunzelmann von Tunzelmann, 1995, 2003Allen, 2009). ...
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Our current historical moment is marked by a widespread sense of (ongoing and anticipated) crises, prompting calls to change existing economic, political, social, and environmental systems. This discourse has directed increased scholarly and policy-orientated attention to the concepts of "transformation" and "resilience." However , beyond attention, these concepts have increasingly adopted a place in rationales for policy action and measurements of its success, highlighting the need for conceptual clarity. In light of this, this paper reviews the use of transformation and resilience in the literature. These concepts appear across a broad spectrum of research fields, ranging from the natural to the social sciences. However, definitions and contexts vary broadly, further underlining the need for clarity. In this paper, we delve specifically into two disciplines: science, technology, and innovation (STI) policy research and economic history. Although unified in their explicit concern with societal change, the disciplines' different understandings of such change, particularly temporal aspects, offer fertile ground for exploring the divergent understandings, uses, and definitions of transformation and resilience in the literature. Through this work, the paper makes two main contributions. First, it produces a nuanced review of how the literature employs the concepts of transformation and resilience. Second, it offers an analysis of how transformation and resilience can be understood in relation to each other from a historical perspective. By historically anchoring these concepts while acknowledging that every time is different, the paper also offers some policy guidance on a key challenge of our era: how to successfully govern resilience and transformation in times of change.
... The economic historian Joel Mokyr (2002Mokyr ( , 2016) emphasised a more nuanced and dynamic view of cultural change, despite the long-standing belief that culture is a static category, in his explanation of the rise of Western economies and the causes and mechanisms of the first, second, and third Industrial Revolutions. He asserts that people's beliefs are what propel economic development. ...
... Mazzucato (2013), on the other hand, believed that great innovations were made possible by the state and science. We contend that, as Mokyr (2002) has stated, the innovation ecosystem fosters development through enabling interactions between the public, commercial, and scientific domains to unlock exaptation and innovation-driven social learning patterns. ...
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This contribution aims to address the intriguing issue of whether Industry 4.0, as a techno-economic paradigm shifter, may have a greater potential for exaptation (i.e., using it not for pursuing of quantitative but that of qualitative development) and, if so, what technologies may accelerate this process. Existing research indicates that graphene technology has the potential to lead the way in this area. The paper addresses not only why and how a graphene-aided Industry 4.0 can be conducive to this function (i.e., making exaptations easier on a larger scale), it examines the wider context for exaptations by questioning whether the current setup of the real economy, the financial universe, and the public sector offers a supportive environment for exaptations.
... The nexus connecting materials research and innovation has garnered considerable attention within the literature. Researchers like Mokyr (2011) have explored the pivotal role of technological advancements in driving economic growth, emphasizing the significance of breakthroughs in materials-related domains in shaping industrial revolutions. Studies scrutinizing investment strategies in materials research provide insights into the decision-making processes of governments, industries, and private investors. ...
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This paper investigates the relationship between funding for materials and its profound impact on the global innovation landscape. Through a comprehensive analysis of funding sources, interdisciplinary collaboration, and case studies, this study emphasizes the crucial role of strategic investment in driving innovation, advancing technologies, and addressing societal challenges. The paper examines the diverse funding landscape, spanning government agencies, private sector entities, and venture capital firms, highlighting the collaborative ecosystem that fuels breakthroughs. Case studies of transformative innovations, including perovskite solar cells and quantum materials, illustrate the direct influence of funding on breakthroughs with far-reaching implications. The study explores potential future trends in materials research funding, such as sustainable technologies and advanced manufacturing, predicting their effects on shaping the innovation landscape. The paper concludes by highlighting the pivotal role of U.S. investment strategies in orchestrating the global innovation ecosystem. It underscores the United States' leadership in interdisciplinary collaboration, knowledge spillover, and strategic allocation of funds, positioning it as a model for driving materials research and propelling societies toward a more sustainable, prosperous future. Ultimately, this research paper underscores the critical importance of materials research funding as a catalyst for innovation, shaping technological advancements and shaping a dynamic global innovation landscape.
... However, due to the exponential growth of universities, 2 fast globalization of higher education and demand for evaluation of cross-national tertiary educational systems (Larsen et al., 2002;Merisotis, 2002;Schofer and Meyer, 2005;Adina-Petruta, 2015), the modern concept of global university ranking arose in 2003 with the Shanghai, (2022)Ranking. Especially because of the effect of university research on economic growth (Anselin et al., 1997;Mokyr, 2011;Cantoni and Yuchtman, 2014;Valero and Van Reenen, 2019;Agasisti and Bertoletti, 2020), league tables have found a significant impact in geopolitics and policymaking (Hazelkorn, 2008;Lee et al., 2020;Zhang et al., 2021;Yudkevich et al., 2023;Szluka et al., 2023;Başar and Kalkan, 2024), and the competition it stems plays a major role in further enhancing the discourse on excellence of human development of nation-states (Brankovic et al., 2018). Furthermore, rankings can influence the reshaping of national educational systems (Marginson and van der Wende, 2007;Hazelkorn, 2015). ...
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Evaluation of university league tables is a controversial topic in higher education studies and metrics of scientific evaluation. Since its appearance on an international scale two decades ago, significant criticism of their methodologies has been accumulating without being addressed. One important bias regards the unequal distribution of research output and impact across different subjects, which in turn favors institutions that have the strongest performance in medical and physical sciences. The university league tables are revisited by normalizing each field to create a uniform distribution of value. Then, the overall performance of an institution is interpreted as the probability of having a high score in any given academic field while not inducing a zero-sum game. The present assessment shows that the main difference between hundreds of leading research universities is whether their coverage of all areas of human knowledge is comprehensive or specialized, whereas their mean performance per subject is nearly indistinguishable.
... The economic spillovers or payoffs from knowledge creation have been recognized by scholars for quite some time (Barro & Sala-i-Martin, 2004;Feldman, 1999;Jones, 2022;Mokyr, 2002). However, with knowledge creation coming in different empirically, especially with data limitations, this paper attempts to make inroads into a better understanding of the effects of books on economic growth. ...
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This paper uses recent global data on book production to study their impacts on economic growth. Books are key inputs in human capital formation and knowledge flows/continuity, which impact economic growth. Our results, using data from nearly 100 nations over 2018–2021, show that books positively contribute to economic growth. This is true whether total books deposited in recognized repositories are used or when they are normalized by population. E-books are also shown to complement the effects of conventional books. The positive growth dividends over a period that encompasses the recent pandemic are insightful. In other results, internet access (and the degree of globalization) has complementary growth effects. Finally, the effects of some of the growth influences are shown to vary across the least- and most-growing nations.
... technology is modular, in that more involved solution mechanisms combine simpler components into larger problem-solving apparatuses (Beinhocker, 2006;Mokyr, 2002). in dynamics of technological change, the foundation that exists provides the means for an expansion of technological capability (Mayhew, 2010). ...
Article
Economic development is generally understood to reflect an expansion of technological capability. Technological change is path dependent. Technology systems lock in on standards. These factors impose constraints on latecoming developing countries, where agents have to master processes that are compatible with established standards in order to integrate into a global technology system. Their integration, furthermore, tends to happen under a specific socio-economic umbrella, to wit the business, economic, and political power structures of the global north. The constraints on late-comers that path dependence and lock-in suggest in this context impose potential obstacles for an instrumental use of the potential that economic development offers for general human development. An integration into global production structures can result in a perpetuation of disadvantaged positions unless specific, for instance geopolitical, factors counter technological and institutional dynamics. This analysis of economic development processes complements results formulated under dependency theory and financialization frameworks.
... Legal practitioners, such as judges, would be needed that are to some extent competent enough in the sciences to be able to understand arguments about good scientific practice, and whether it was followed in a particular case 19 . Given the institutional problem that science faces currently, as well as the close connection between the growth of scientific knowledge and the growth of wealth in liberal economies (see Mokyr 2002), such an investment seems to be justified in the short run and additionally there is good reason for expecting it to pay off in the form of higher tax revenues in the long run. ...
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In this paper I argue that problems connected to good scientific practice and scientific misconduct can be fruitfully analyzed via the means of transaction costs economics. Thus, transaction costs economics is a valuable tool for the descriptive as well as normative analysis of science. I further argue that current institutional matrices impose high transaction costs on (potential) funding agencies of scientific research. This underlies many cases of bad practice in scientific research. Lowering these transaction costs would have positive effects both on the adherence of researchers to the rules of good practice as well as for the amount of funding that is spend on research. In the end, I propose an institutional reform that promises to lower these transaction costs based upon an idea of Michael Rosenblatt.
... Third, the implication of these two points is that the concept of a knowledge-based economy, as well as the concept of a learning society and a learning economy, remains too general in examining innovation policies relevant to the current socioeconomic situation. As the economic historian Mokyr (2004) convincingly argues, information, knowledge, and learning have always been important for a very long time since the industrial revolution, which means that concepts such as a knowledge-based economy and a learning economy reflect too general understanding of the current trend to specify relevant policies suitable for the current, specific period, i.e., the turning point of the ICT revolution and the transformation to the anthropogenic growth model. ...
Chapter
As one of the possible solutions to the current socioeconomic problems, several novel approaches to innovation policy have been proposed and adopted by advanced countries that seek to foster innovation to stimulate productive investment and solve major societal challenges, such as health and environmental crises. This type of policy approach is often referred to as “mission-oriented innovation policy” (MOIP) because it encourages governments to set up various missions and invest resources to steer private sector innovation in particular directions. While MOIP may well be an appropriate approach for the current historical stage of techno-economic as well as capitalist development, proponents of MOIP overestimate the policy capacity of governments to steer innovation in particular directions. Moreover, they do not consider the risk of MOIP turning into an unproductive rent-seeking opportunity. In this context, this chapter explores the institutional underpinnings of MOIP through the cases of MOIP implementation in Finland, where innovations in specific fields that solve societal problems faced by cities are promoted by creating institutional conditions that enable private companies to develop and demonstrate their products in public facilities and infrastructure and to receive feedback on their innovations. Based on the analysis of the cases, it is argued that instead of the concept of national system of innovation, an alternative concept, “public sphere for innovation,” is introduced as a more appropriate one to explicitly capture the institutional context of the evolutionary processes of MOIP, which includes dissonance, conflict, dialogue, and openness.
... In the sparsely populated world of the pre-industrial era, groundbreaking innovations were therefore rare and only led to a short-term rise in living standards, as this caused an increase in fertility until the rise in population had pushed the average income back down to the starting level. By the end of the 18th century, however, in England, increased population, urbanization, and a combination of growth-enhancing factors, including a cultural environment conducive to science and innovation (Mokyr 2002), have led to an increase in inventive activities, resulting in a higher permanent rate of technological progress. New technologies spilled over to other European countries, and rapid technological change increased the demand for human capital. ...
Article
In the second half of the 19th century, Germany developed into one of the most innovative economies in the world and was able to defend this position in the 20th century. In order to investigate the causes of this inventiveness, it is necessary to quantify innovations and assign them to inventors, regions and indus- tries. For this reason, various historical patent databases have been set up over the last two decades, currently covering the period from 1815 to 1990. We present these patent databases and give an overview of the main empirical studies based on these statistics.
... Esta limitación estaba relacionada, en parte, con la insuficiencia de tipologías materialistas sobre el conocimiento. No obstante, diversos autores ofrecieron valiosos aportes parciales (Machlup, 1962;Mokyr, 2002;Nonaka y Takeuchi, 1995;Lundvall y Johnson, 1994). Particularmente, Chartrand (2007) ofreció bases importantes para la tipología que desarrolló posteriormente el materialismo cognitivo. ...
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El materialismo cognitivo es un marco teórico-metodológico desarrollado desde América Latina para el análisis de las relaciones entre capitalismo y conocimiento, fundamentalmente alrededor de los procesos productivos. Dicho marco, con base en un conjunto de categorías originales, permite una relectura de la historia del capitalismo y ofrece interpretaciones de fenómenos contemporáneos. A su vez, presenta una ontología y una gnoseología materialistas cognitivas y reabre la indagación sobre problemas y conceptos clásicos (dialéctica, ideología, explotación, entre otros). Por razones de extensión, este artículo no aborda este conjunto de temas, sino que se presenta una revisión del materialismo cognitivo respecto de algunas de sus nociones fundamentales y se sistematiza la literatura que ha hecho uso de ellas en la última década. Se trata, en tanto, de un conjunto de investigaciones que han enriquecido el alcance de las categorías originarias. Esta tarea de recapitulación se lleva a cabo alrededor de cuatro ejes temáticos. Primero, se señalan los diálogos teóricos a partir de los cuales emerge el materialismo cognitivo. Segundo, se presentan las nociones básicas de este enfoque, incluyendo la concepción sobre el capitalismo y sus etapas. Tercero, se expone el abordaje teórico y empírico del materialismo cognitivo respecto de la relación entre producción y apropiación de conocimientos, particularmente alrededor de las distintas formas de propiedad intelectual. Esta línea de estudios ha incluido, en varios casos, la dimensión de las relaciones centro/periferia respecto a esos procesos de apropiación. Cuarto y último, se revisan trabajos teóricos y empíricos que dan cuenta de un conjunto de tendencias de la sociedad, la economía y la cultura asociadas a las tecnologías digitales e Internet.
... Esta limitación estaba relacionada, en parte, con la insuficiencia de tipologías materialistas sobre el conocimiento. No obstante, diversos autores ofrecieron valiosos aportes parciales (Machlup, 1962;Mokyr, 2002;Nonaka y Takeuchi, 1995;Lundvall y Johnson, 1994). Particularmente, Chartrand (2007) ofreció bases importantes para la tipología que desarrolló posteriormente el materialismo cognitivo. ...
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Full-text available
El materialismo cognitivo es un marco teórico-metodológico desarrollado desde América Latina para el análisis de las relaciones entre capitalismo y conocimiento, fundamentalmente alrededor de los procesos productivos. Dicho marco, con base en un conjunto de categorías originales, permite una relectura de la historia del capitalismo y ofrece interpretaciones de fenómenos contemporáneos. A su vez, presenta una ontología y una gnoseología materialistas cognitivas y reabre la indagación sobre problemas y conceptos clásicos (dialéctica, ideología, explotación, entre otros). Por razones de extensión, este artículo no aborda este conjunto de temas, sino que se presenta una revisión del materialismo cognitivo respecto de algunas de sus nociones fundamentales y se sistematiza la literatura que ha hecho uso de ellas en la última década. Se trata, en tanto, de un conjunto de investigaciones que han enriquecido el alcance de las categorías originarias. Esta tarea de recapitulación se lleva a cabo alrededor de cuatro ejes temáticos. Primero, se señalan los diálogos teóricos a partir de los cuales emerge el materialismo cognitivo. Segundo, se presentan las nociones básicas de este enfoque, incluyendo la concepción sobre el capitalismo y sus etapas. Tercero, se expone el abordaje teórico y empírico del materialismo cognitivo respecto de la relación entre producción y apropiación de conocimientos, particularmente alrededor de las distintas formas de propiedad intelectual. Esta línea de estudios ha incluido, en varios casos, la dimensión de las relaciones centro/periferia respecto a esos procesos de apropiación. Cuarto y último, se revisan trabajos teóricos y empíricos que dan cuenta de un conjunto de tendencias de la sociedad, la economía y la cultura asociadas a las tecnologías digitales e Internet. /// Cognitive materialism is a theoretical and methodological framework developed in Latin America for analyzing the relationship between capitalism and knowledge, particularly in the context of productive processes. Based on a set of original categories, it offers a novel interpretation of the history of capitalism and provides new insights into contemporary phenomena. Moreover, cognitive materialism proposes a distinctive ontology and gnoseology, reexamining classic problems and concepts such as dialectics, ideology, and exploitation. However, for the sake of simplicity, this article does not delve into these aspects. Instead, it provides an overview of cognitive materialism, focusing on some of its fundamental notions and classifying the literature that has adopted these ideas over the past decade. The result is a body of theoretical and empirical research that has broadened the scope of the original categories. Specifically, the reviewed literature is organized around four thematic axes. The first axis outlines the theoretical dialogues that gave rise to cognitive materialism. The second axis presents the fundamental notions of this social theory, including its conceptualization of capitalism. The third axis examines the theoretical and empirical approaches of cognitive materialism to the relationship between production and appropriation of knowledge, with an emphasis on the different forms of intellectual property. This axis often includes an analysis of center-periphery relations concerning these appropriation processes. Finally, the fourth axis encompasses theoretical and empirical studies that explore social, economic, and cultural trends related to digital technologies and the Internet.
... So, for a given stock of human capital, greater freedom of choice and less group pressure will lead individuals to make the choices and realize the possibilities that maximize their expected income. (3) More individualistic cultures tend to emphasize personal accomplishments, and they attach a higher social status to breakthroughs, innovation, and a successful career (Mokyr 2002). Therefore, human capital will provide individualistic children with higher nonmonetary returns. ...
... In fact, a substantial body of subsequent literature on this linkage is stuffed mostly with statistical/econometric modelling/estimations with cross-section data of which interpretations are intrinsically subject to credible doubts/scepticisms/uncertainty pertaining to precise causality and/or underlying mechanisms. More lately, a case for MHE is often summarily attributed to a catch-all (and loosely perceived) term 'knowledge-society'a term which was, arguably, no less applicable/relevant to historical periods of western industrial ascendency especially during nineteenth century onwards (Mokyr 2004). ...
... If one considers universities as knowledge factories (Enarson, 1973), it is fundamental that they adjust to new societal and economic demands (Delanty, 2001). Information and communication technology (ICT) is vital in this transition (Mokyr, 2002). According to Fuchs (2017), "ICTs are means that humans use for creating, disseminating, and consuming information about the world. ...
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This Special Issue of Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education on Higher Education and Digitalization reviews and compares the processes of digitalization of higher education. The articles, covering 14 countries or regions from five continents, show the many commonalities and challenges of the transformation to a digital state and society, but also significant differences between them, especially between the countries of the ‘global North’ and the ‘global South.’ However, these differences stem mostly from governmental policy decisions regarding higher education, more so than technological dimensions of digitalization or the stages of economic development.
... It supports Arthur's argument that technology is not limited to physical artifacts but can refer to a wide class of phenomena, both 'software' and 'hardware,' such as processes and methods. This broad definition not only highlights the fact that competences (knowledge and skills) and not physical devices lie at the heart of technology, but also that technology can be conceptualized as potentially useful knowledge because it fulfills human purposes (Mokyr 2004). Additionally, consistent with the institutional focus of a service ecosystems perspective, multiple scholars (Nelson and Nelson 2002;Pinch and Bijker 1984;Orlikowski 1992) have pointed out that technology is always socially constructed. ...
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We apply service-dominant (S-D) logic and its service-ecosystems perspective as a means for reconceptualizing innovation through a broader and deeper perspective. More specifically, we argue that a service-ecosystems perspective enables researchers and managers to consider the interactions among a full range of actors and processes involved in value creation. This systemic perspective helps to shed light on the processes and practices that are foundational to the formation and re-formation of technologies and markets. Importantly, a service-ecosystems view broadens the scope of innovation to include the social structures (i.e., institutions) that guide and are guided by the actions and interactions among multiple actors.
... These include, for instance, hiring (Audretsch and Stephan 1996), licensing (Dechenaux et al. 2008), collaboration (Cockburn and Henderson 1998), geographic location Chung 2007, Belenzon andSchankerman 2013), and selective attention (Bikard and Marx 2020). Conferences are a landmark of modern science (Crane 1974, Mokyr 2011) and may provide another bridge toward the knowledge frontier. Examples show that some firms make large participation investments in order to feature prominently with scientific contributions and as conference sponsors. ...
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