2015 AAAS Annual Meeting (12-16 February 2015)

February 12 - 16, 2015

Historical and Philosophical Perspectives on Innovation in Science and Society

Current society is innovation driven. Innovations are seen as necessary to overcome problems from climate change, income inequality, economic development, environmental impacts, and food security. Consequently, governments and science agencies worldwide attempt to foster innovation. But what do we know about the role of innovation in science and society? How do we detect signatures of innovation dynamics in science, technology, and society? What societal and institutional settings foster innovation? What are the long-term consequences of innovations? This session takes a historical and philosophical perspective to these problems and presents a number of case studies of innovation dynamics in different scientific, technological, and societal contexts -- from ancient China to modern cities and from scientific societies, such as the Max Planck Society, to innovation and technology hubs, and from closely integrated scientific communities to the transformative dynamics within scientific disciplines. The session will explore commonalities and differences between examples of innovation to better understand the conditions for and consequences of innovation. All case studies apply novel and innovative computational methods that allow for “big data” driven approaches to the study of historical dynamics.