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Phenomena supporting technocapitalism

 

 

The phenomena supporting the rise of technocapitalism are of two basic types.  One typology includes macro phenomena related to long-term accumulation.  A second typology includes micro phenomena involving processes of diffusion and generation at the level of organizations and individuals.

 

The macro phenomena

 

The macro phenomena are found at the societal level, they are collective and are best understood from a long-term perspective.  These phenomena are largely out of the control of any single institution, organization or group of individuals.  Together, they form a macro platform from which technocapitalism is emerging.

 

The rapid accumulation of inventions has been a major macro phenomenon supporting technocapitalism.  The number of inventions patented during the second half of the twentieth century increased to levels never seen before in human history.  This unprecedented surge of inventive creativity has been a major cause of the rise of technocapitalism.

 

The higher the number of patented inventions, the larger the stock of patents that can potentially be used for some economic or social purpose.  Intellectual property of new ideas and discoveries became more valuable than ever during the second half of the twentieth century.  This phenomenon provided a substantial increase in the societal innovative capacity that resulted in the transformation of many fields (for insights on innovative capacity and its effects, please visit www.innovativecapacity.com).

 

Second, the rapid massification of education during the second half of the twentieth century, and particularly technological education, was another macro phenomenon supporting the rise of technocapitalism.  After the mid-1940s, access to higher education came to be regarded as a right in many nations.  Enrollment in higher education in science and technology fields expanded as never before.  Now, a new frontier of massification, the spread of Internet-based distance learning programs, is taking this massification process farther than anyone could imagine barely a decade ago. 

 

The third macro phenomenon supporting technocapitalism is the unprecedented accumulation of infrastructure, both physical and intangible, during the second half of the twentieth century.  The construction of physical infrastructure involving educational facilities, laboratories and communications, for example, reached unprecedented levels, supporting the massification process noted above.  Similarly, the development of intangible infrastructure, such as the formation of communities and local networks supportive of inventors and their lifestyles, became more obvious than ever.

 

The importance of infrastructure is often ignored or taken for granted in most accounts of technological change.  However, its support of invention and innovation is a fundamental one.  Without the appropriate infrastructure, none of the macro or micro phenomena supporting the emergence of technocapitalism could operate effectively.  

 

A fourth macro phenomenon is a new geography of invention and innovation, involving radical changes from previous times.  The second half of the twentieth century saw in the United States a process whereby previously peripheral or undeveloped areas became the most important sources of invention and innovation.  At the same time, the prior predominant national sources of invention declined and were overshadowed by the new areas.  Areas in Sunbelt states, such as Silicon Valley, Southern California, Eastern Texas, North Carolina and Northern Virginia, among others, became the most important national sources of invention and innovation.  In the short span of four decades they displaced the previously predominant areas of Eastern New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Illinois. 

 

This radical process of regional inversion was in part a product of the rapid accumulation of inventions, infrastructure, and the massification of education noted earlier (for insights on this phenomenon, please visit www.regionalinversion.com).  Internal population migration toward Sunbelt states, along with the immigration of highly skilled groups, helped this process.  Military research and related activities in some Sunbelt states was also important.  The massive shift in the geographical sourcing of invention and innovation resulting from this process has not been replicated so far by any other nation in the world.  It therefore remains an American phenomenon.  Perhaps in coming decades we might witness a similar process of regional inversion in other nations.                            

       

The micro phenomena

 

The micro phenomena involve processes of diffusion and generation of new knowledge that can lead to invention and innovation.  They occur largely at the level of organizations and individuals.  Together, they constitute the micro-level platform that supports the emergence of technocapitalism.

 

The rapid diffusion of knowledge experienced during the second half of the twentieth century is a major phenomenon supporting technocapitalism.  Knowledge became easier to diffuse and acquire than ever before, thanks largely to the massification of education discussed earlier.  The diffusion of technological knowledge, confined mostly to elites in previous times, thus became a mass activity. 

 

Despite its massive scope, the diffusion of knowledge remains largely a function of corporate organizations and public institutions.  Knowledge, unlike information, usually requires much effort, persistence, long periods of time to be acquired, and it confers in many cases a lasting advantage.  The second half of the twentieth century, moreover, saw new inventions being put to work, such as computers and the Internet, that made it easier and faster than ever for organizations and individuals to diffuse new knowledge.

 

        Second, the corporatization of invention and the rising importance attached to corporate R&D (research and development) became another micro phenomenon supporting the rise of technocapitalism.  The rate of individual invention stagnated during the second half of the twentieth century, but corporate invention surged to levels never seen before in history.  Thus, the rapid accumulation of inventions of the second half of the twentieth century was largely a corporate phenomenon.

 

The innovative capacity of organizations increased to unprecedented levels during the last decades of the twentieth century, due to the rising importance of R&D.  This development is, in part, behind the emergence of new corporate organizations that are a distinctive feature of technocapitalism.  These new corporate organizations are overwhelmingly focused on research, and depend mostly on invention and innovation for survival. 

These  organizations are therefore a product of the rising importance of corporate R&D,

and of their need to appropriate research results.

 

These new corporate organizations commodify research creativity in order to appropriate its results.  Appropriation of intellectual property rights (such as invention patents) is therefore as important to these corporate organizations as research.  One cannot be obtained without the other, and creativity is their common denominator and most precious resource.

 

The third micro phenomenon supporting the rise of technocapitalism is the spread of systematized invention and innovation.  This phenomenon has become most obvious in the new sectors that are representative of technocapitalism, such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, genomics, bioinformatics and biomimetics.  This is in part a result of the corporatization of invention and the rising importance of R&D.  Although most systematized innovation has occurred in corporate R&D units, the basic features of this phenomenon now seem to be spilling over into other corporate activities, including services.  Thus, generating a continuous stream of novelty is becoming an important objective for some of the most common activities of our time.

 

Fourth, the rapid reproduction of creativity is another micro-level feature supporting technocapitalism.  Technological creativity is not a constant attribute.  It must be inspired, replenished and sustained in individuals through social mediation.  This unremitting renewal can be called reproduction, since it involves a regeneration and renewal of creative talent.

 

The reproduction of creativity is largely external to corporate organizations.  Reproduction therefore occurs through society and involves myriad social and cultural influences that are outside the control of corporate power.  Because of the complex and multifaceted nature of those influences, it is practically impossible for corporations to control the reproduction of creativity to any significant extent.  This aspect is distinctive of technocapitalism, and it stands in deep contrast with the situation under industrial capitalism, when corporations could reproduce their resources largely under their control.

 

The rising importance of networks is the fifth micro phenomenon supporting the rise of technocapitalism.  Networks are vital for reproducing creativity and also for diffusing new knowledge.  A major factor here is that most organizations cannot hope to possess internally all the resources needed to reproduce creativity, and sustain systematized research. 

 

The expertise needed to reproduce creativity and sustain continuous invention has become more complex and multidisciplinary than ever, and the accompanying hardware more costly.  Therefore, organizations must reach out to find external resources through networks.  The rising importance of alliances, joint ventures and outsourcing arrangements in many activities is an effect of this phenomenon.

 

Some of the phenomena supporting technocapitalism, or their effects, will be discussed in greater detail in other sections of this website.

 

For more insights on the phenomena of technocapitalism, see Prof. Suarez-Villa’s book, Technocapitalism: A Critical Perspective on Technological Innovation and Corporatism (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2009).  An image of this book’s cover, with links to the publisher and to comments,

is at the bottom of this website’s home page.     

 

 

For publications on these phenomena and related topics by this author, please see the Publications section of this website.

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Copyright © Luis Suarez-Villa