This chapter discusses three styles of critique of innovation, each of them associated with descriptive and normative theories of innovation. First, the critique of the ideology of innovation confronts "myths" with facts. Critics evaluate innovation according to the validity of the representations of the world it proposes, and the consequences of these representations. Second, innovation can be considered as an engine for critique. Thus, Michel Callon theorizes dynamic of framing and overflowing spurring the emergence of concerned groups. In this perspective, critique is part and parcel of innovation, and performed both by concerned groups and by analysts giving voice to them. A third approach situates innovation in heterogeneous regimes associated with propositions for social ordering. Critique then consists in making these associations visible, and possibly using comparison to de-naturalize them. Confronting and drawing connections between these styles of critique opens up new spaces of debate about innovation.
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Front Matter
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Part I: VISIONS OF INNOVATION
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Part II: THEORIZING INNOVATION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: THE FOUNDATIONS
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Part III: ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO INNOVATION
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Part IV: ALTERNATIVE TYPES OF INNOVATION
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Part V: SUPPORTING INNOVATION: REFRAMING THE INSTRUMENTS
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Part VI: IMMUNE DISCIPLINES AND FORGOTTEN THEORIZATIONS
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Part VII: THEORIZING THE THEORIES
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Back Matter
