Innovation and the State: Thinking of Government as “Technology Maker” and Implications for Public Administration Research Cover Image

Innovation and the State: Thinking of Government as “Technology Maker” and Implications for Public Administration Research
Innovation and the State: Thinking of Government as “Technology Maker” and Implications for Public Administration Research

Author(s): Erkki Karo, Rainer Kattel
Subject(s): Economy, Governance, Public Administration
Published by: Ragnar Nurkse School of Innovation and Governance, Tallinn University of Technology
Keywords: public administration; public sector innovation; technological innovation; co-evolution; government as technology maker;

Summary/Abstract: In this essay we summarize the historical roots and development of public sector innovation research and discuss its main current weakness – lack of explicit evolutionary perspective. To remedy this weakness, we develop a co-evolutionary perspective on public administration, technological development and innovation. Relying on Christopher Pollitt’s framework of government as “placemaker”, we propose a complementary framework of government as “technology maker”. In the concluding section, we discuss the implications of the proposed framework for PA research.

  • Issue Year: XVII/2016
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 5-17
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: English