Abstract
The concept of the linear model of (LMI) was introduced by authors belonging to the field of innovation studies in the middle of the 1980s. According to the model, there is a simple sequence of steps going from basic science to innovations - an innovation being defined as an invention that is profitable. In innovation studies, the LMI is held to be assumed in Science the endless frontier (Sef), the influential report prepared by Vannevar Bush in 1945. In this paper, it is argued that: (1) the LMI was introduced with critical purposes, as part of the questioning of the conception of science and the proposals for science policies put forward in Sef; (2) at a first level of analysis, the LMI appears as a straw man, defended neither in Sef, nor anywhere else; (3) the LMI is a weapon against the importance attributed to basic science in Sef, and its defense of the financing of basic research by the state; (4) the LMI is a component of the process of commodification of science promoted by neoliberalism. The last section of the paper presents a qualified defense of basic science and basic research.
Highlights
This paper is a fragment of a larger research project that I have been working on for some time
The present paper is a complement to that article; its aim is to develop a deeper account of the relationships between basic science and technology, by means of a study of the so called Linear Model of Innovation (LMI)
In an article published in 2010, that – like Freeman’s – had the intention to present a partial defense of the LMI, the authors explain their motivations as follows: This paper was prompted by the increasing dissatisfaction with the current trend in the economic and social studies of science, technology and innovations, towards generalized criticism of the so-called ‘linear model’
Summary
This paper is a fragment of a larger research project that I have been working on for some time. (1) Processes in which the programme of scientific research – i.e., of the set of all projects to be undertaken – comes to be determined by the market. (3) Processes of expansion and strengthening of Intellectual Property Rights (patents and copyrights), whose establishment is necessary for the distribution of intellectual goods to be carried out in the way proper to commodities, i.e., by means of buying and selling. Each of those categories corresponds to a dimension of the global process of commodification of science. The present paper is a complement to that article; its aim is to develop a deeper account of the relationships between basic science and technology, by means of a study of the so called Linear Model of Innovation (LMI)
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