Energy, urbanization, and complexity: Towards a multi-scale ecological economic theory of innovation

发表日期：2024-05-20

作者：Stefano Menegat

单位：Department of Economics and Statistics;University of Turin;Lungo Dora Siena 100A;10154 Turin;Italy

期刊：Ecological Economics

摘要：The concept of innovation is at the heart of any attempt to draft a theory of meaningful economic change. Whether reducing innovation to the myth of the "single inventor" or employing technological determinism, the dominant narrative ignores the complexity of the socio-ecological relationships that underpin patterns of social transformation. This paper proposes a framework based on critical realism and ecological economics, describing innovation as an element endogenous to the historical model of socio-ecological reproduction. Starting from Schumpeter's definition of creative response and Georgescu-Rogan's concept of extrinsic evolution, I discuss three main arguments: first, the relationship between innovation and socioeconomic change is non-straightforward, because the direction of causality cannot be clearly established; Second, the emergence of innovation is bounded by diminishing marginal returns to economic complexity. Third, economic change must be linked to historical cycles of energy use and economic complexity. These arguments confirm the hypothesis that the capitalist economy has experienced a sustained S-shaped wave of innovation over the past two centuries. This paper has several implications for the study of innovation waves and economic growth, especially by proposing a new framework to conceptualize productivity, energy, and labor as the cornerstones of multiscale innovation theory.

关键词：Theory of innovation; Technology; Thermodynamics; Declining marginal returns to complexity; Limits to growth

链接：Energy, urbanization, and complexity: Towards a multi-scale ecological economic theory of innovation