Innovation in Practice: The "Technology Drive Policy" and the 4Mb DRAM R&D Consortium in South Korea in the 1980s and 1990s.

Abstract

This article suggests that the term "innovation," which is nowadays a ubiquitous buzzword for policy makers and economic analysts, should be viewed as a political agenda and a way of practicing R&D adopted by a wide range of historical actors, including bureaucrats, corporate executives, engineers, and social scientists. To examine the politics of innovation, this article looks at South Korea in the 1980s and 1990s, when different ideas of innovation were mobilized, conflicted, and reshaped in the context of political regime changes and global trade disputes. Rather than exploring the factors that contribute to being innovative, this article attempts to reveal the socio-technical dynamics in which certain types of practicing R&D are understood as innovation.