Innovation and Its Enemies: Why People Resist New Technologies

By Calestous Juma

Book Overview

It is a curious situation that technologies we now take for granted have, when first introduced, so often stoked public controversy and concern for public welfare. At the root of this tension is the perception that the benefits of new technologies will accrue only to small sections of society, while the risks will be more widely distributed.

Drawing from nearly 600 years of technology history, Calestous Juma identifies the tension between the need for innovation and the pressure to maintain continuity, social order, and stability as one of today's biggest policy challenges. He reveals the extent to which modern technological controversies grow out of distrust in public and private institutions and shows how new technologies emerge, take root, and create new institutional ecologies that favor their establishment in the marketplace. Innovation and Its Enemies calls upon public leaders to work with scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs to manage technological change and expand public engagement on scientific and technological matters.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0190467037
• ISBN13: 9780190467036
• Release Date: July 2016
• Publisher: Oxford Univ PR
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.8" x 8.4"