Does America Need More Innovators?

by Matthew Wisnioski (Editor), Eric S. Hintz (Editor), Marie Stettler Kleine (Editor), Humera Fasihuddin (Contribution by), Leticia Britos Cavagnaro (Contribution by)

Overview

A critical exploration of today's global imperative to innovate, by champions, critics, and reformers of innovation.

Corporate executives, politicians, and school board leaders agree—Americans must innovate. Innovation experts fuel this demand with books and services that instruct aspiring innovators in best practices, personal habits, and workplace cultures for fostering innovation. But critics have begun to question the unceasing promotion of innovation, pointing out its gadget-centric shallowness, the lack of diversity among innovators, and the unequal distribution of innovation's burdens and rewards. Meanwhile, reformers work to make the training of innovators more inclusive and the outcomes of innovation more responsible. This book offers an overdue critical exploration of today's global imperative to innovate by bringing together innovation's champions, critics, and reformers in conversation. 

The book presents an overview of innovator training, exploring the history, motivations, and philosophies of programs in private industry, universities, and government; offers a primer on critical innovation studies, with essays that historicize, contextualize, and problematize the drive to create innovators; and considers initiatives that seek to reform and reshape what it means to be an innovator.

Contributors
Errol Arkilic, Catherine Ashcraft, Leticia Britos Cavagnaro, W. Bernard Carlson, Lisa D. Cook, Humera Fasihuddin, Maryann Feldman, Erik Fisher, Benoît Godin, Jenn Gustetic, David Guston, Eric S. Hintz, Marie Stettler Kleine, Dutch MacDonald, Mickey McManus, Sebastian Pfotenhauer, Natalie Rusk, Andrew L. Russell, Lucinda M. Sanders, Brenda Trinidad, Lee Vinsel, Matthew Wisnioski

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262536738
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	04/09/2019
Series:	Lemelson Center Studies in Invention and Innovation seriesSeries Series
Pages:	410
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Matthew Wisnioski is Associate Professor of Science, Technology, and Society at Virginia Tech and the author of Engineers for Change: Competing Visions of Technology in 1960s America (MIT Press).

Eric S. Hintz is Historian at the Smithsonian Institution's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the National Museum of American History.

Marie Stettler Kleine is a PhD candidate in Science, Technology, and Society at Virginia Tech.

Matthew Wisnioski is Associate Professor of Science, Technology, and Society at Virginia Tech and the author of Engineers for Change: Competing Visions of Technology in 1960s America (MIT Press).

Benoît Godin is a Professor at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique, Montreal.

Eric S. Hintz is Historian at the Smithsonian Institution's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the National Museum of American History.

David Guston is Professor and Founding Director of the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University, where he also serves as Codirector of the Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes..

Matthew Wisnioski is Associate Professor of Science, Technology, and Society at Virginia Tech and the author of Engineers for Change: Competing Visions of Technology in 1960s America (MIT Press).

Eric S. Hintz is Historian at the Smithsonian Institution's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the National Museum of American History.

Marie Stettler Kleine is a PhD candidate in Science, Technology, and Society at Virginia Tech.

Table of Contents

Series Foreword vii

Acknowledgments ix

1 The Innovator Imperative Matthew Wisnioski 1

I Champions

2 Introduction 17

3 An Innovators' Movement Humera Fasihuddin Leticia Britos Cavagnaro 25

4 Building High-performance Teams for Collaborative Innovation Mickey McManus Dutch MacDonald 51

5 Raising the NSF Innovation Corps Errol Arkilic 69

6 Making Innovators, Building Regions Maryann Feldman 83

7 Innovation for Every American Jenn Gustetic 105

II Critics

8 Introduction 133

9 How Innovation Evolved from a Heretical Act to a Heroic Imperative Benoît Godin 141

10 Failed Inventor initiatives, from the Franklin Institute to Quirky Eric S. Hintz 165

11 Building Global Innovation Hubs: The MIT Model in Three Start-Up Universities Sebastian Pfotenhauer 191

12 The Innovation Gap in Pink and Black Lisa D. Cook 221

13 Make Maintainers: Engineering Education and an Ethics of Care Andrew L. Russell Lee Vinsel 249

III Reformers

14 Introduction 273

15 Designing Learning Environments That Engage Young People as Creators Natalie Rusk 281

16 Using the Past to Make Innovators W. Bernard Carlson 299

17 Confronting the Absence of Women in Technology Innovation Lucinda M. Sanders Catherine Ashcraft 323

18 Making Responsible Innovators Erik Fisher David Guston Brenda Trinidad 345

19 Remaking the Innovator Imperative Matthew Wisnioski Eric S. Hintz Marie Stettler Kleine 367

Contributors 375

Index 379

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

In the 20th century, innovation and entrepreneurship were thought of as solitary and heroic individual effort. Now in the 21st century we've developed methodologies, programs, and curricula to help make it scale. This book provides a lively look at the Champions, Critics and Reformers of those programs. It offers important lessons for today's innovators and those who train them.

—Steve Blank, entrepreneur, educator, and author of The Startup Owner's Manual

Today, 'innovation' has the same talismanic ring to it as 'national security' did during the Cold War. But, as in the past, some experts wonder if too much emphasis is placed on entrepreneurs and innovation. This much-needed volume, with essays from noted champions, skeptics, and critics, offers a critical, scholarly perspective on this vital topic. By the book's end, readers will see that calls for more innovation are embedded in a rich historical, economic, and cultural context.

—W. Patrick McCray, Professor, Department of History, University of California, Santa Barbara