Understanding regional innovation cultures: A comparison of five German city-regions and their adoption of global innovation "best practices"
Final Report Abstract
The aim of the project was to place questions of local cultures, identities and social needs at the center of innovation theory. In a comparative analysis of five different German urban regions - Berlin, Dortmund, Dresden, Karlsruhe, and Munich, - we explored how these regions navigate the tensions between abstract models of innovation and local sociocultural embeddedness. The study addressed the question of how each region demonstrates the purpose, mechanics, and limits of innovation differently. All five city-regions stand out for their strong technical universities and recent science and technology initiatives. Going beyond the usual indicators of innovativeness, we examined sociologically how each city-region takes a distinct path to situate itself, along with its changing economy, history, and cultural diversity, in the “innovation society.” As a result of the project, we have developed the concept of regional cultures of innovation, which allows local differences to be better reflected and accounted for in both innovation theory and public policy. Regional innovation cultures refer to unique ways in which regional innovation initiatives and technology developments (their goals, meanings, material organization, and actor constellations) are being brought into alignment with local identities, socio-economic legacies, and unique political cultures. Our framework foregrounds five analytic dimensions: imagined social orders, representations, political cultures, relationship to national and global initiatives, and local controversies. Through the lens of culture, innovation ceases to be primarily a source of social change and disruption, but can be understood as a mode of socio-cultural reproduction subject to tentative, constrained experimentation. Innovation initiatives cannot break too radically with existing social norms and orders without risking public support or legitimacy, thus creating a trade-off between proposing novelty and ensuring continuity. Our analysis lends further support for constructivist approaches to innovation studies, emphasizing plural and socially grounded perspectives on the rationalization, implementation, and evaluation of innovation.
Publications
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Science And Democracy Network 16th Annual Meeting Of Bits and Pretzels and Resourceful Bureaucracies: ‘Conservative Innovation’ in Bavaria 07/2017 Boston, USA
Sebastian Pfotenhauer
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EASST Conference The diversity of regional innovation cultures in the European Union: "conservative innovation" in Bavaria 07/2018 Lancaster, UK
Alexander Wentland
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Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) Exploring Regional Innovation Cultures: Regional Diversity, Cultural Imaginations, and Social Cohesion in Innovation Theory and Practice (track) 09/2019 New Orleans, USA
Sebastian Pfotenhauer
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Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) Of Bits and Pretzels and Bureaucracies: Regional Innovation Cultures and “Conservative Innovation” in Bavaria 07/2019 Sydney, Australia
Sebastian Pfotenhauer
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Challenging the “deficit model” of innovation: Framing policy issues under the innovation imperative. Research Policy, 48(4), 895-904.
Pfotenhauer, Sebastian M.; Juhl, Joakim & Aarden, Erik
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Changing Political Economy of Research and Innovation (CPERI) 7th Annual Workshop Imaginaries of de-industrialization in Germany: Sociotechnical transformation beyond recipes, models, and panaceas 09/2019 New Orleans, USA
Alexander Wentland
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City Science Lab Hamburg If City Labs are the answer – what is the question? 09/2020 Hamburg, Germany
Luise Ruge
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EASST Conference Co-Creation of City Futures in Three Policy Labs in Berlin, Dortmund and Munich 08/2020 Prague, Czech Republic (virtual)
Luise Ruge
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EASST/4S joint conference Regional exnovation. Structural change and sociotechnical imaginaries in Lusatia and the Ruhr area 08/2020 Prague, Czech Republic (virtual)
Alexander Wentland
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EU-SPRI Conference Rethinking diversity in innovation systems: Regional Innovation Cultures and the case of Bavaria 06/2020 Paris, France
Sebastian Pfotenhauer
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Natural laboratories as policy instruments for technological learning and institutional capacity building: The case of Chile's astronomy cluster. Research Policy, 49(2), 103899.
Guridi, Jose A.; Pertuze, Julio A. & Pfotenhauer, Sebastian M.
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Die Glaubenssätze einer innovationsbasierten Transformationspolitik, ihre Artikulationen und Fallstricke am Beispiel der Stadt Dortmund, in: Herberg, J., Staemmler, J., Nanz, P. (Eds.), Wissenschaft im Strukturwandel. Die paradoxe Praxis engagierter Transformationsforschung. oekom verlag, pp. 117–139.
Wentland & A.
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The politics of scaling. Social Studies of Science, 52(1), 3-34.
Pfotenhauer, Sebastian; Laurent, Brice; Papageorgiou, Kyriaki & Stilgoe, Jack
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Conference Marlise “I can’t promise you a future [in upstate New York]”... but semiconductors can? High-tech innovation in a “lost” region 12/2022 Cholula, Mexico
Marlise Schneider
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EASST Conference Trickle Down Innovation for Rustbelt Regions? A comparison of two semiconductor hubs in the US and Germany 07/2022 Madrid, Spain
Marlise Schneider
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GWTF-Tagung Innovation macht Stadt: Wie die Innovationskultur städtische Transformationen konstituiert 11/2022 Dortmund
Cindy Rentrop
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Science Democracy Network Annual Meeting No Space for Subculture, no Space for Disruption: A Story of Tame Creativity 07/2022 Boston, USA
Nadine Osbild
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Understanding regional innovation cultures: Narratives, directionality, and conservative innovation in Bavaria. Research Policy, 52(3), 104704.
Pfotenhauer, Sebastian M.; Wentland, Alexander & Ruge, Luise
