TY - CHAP

T1 - Research and innovation (and) after neoliberalism

T2 - the case of Chinese smart e-mobility

AU - Tyfield, David Peter

PY - 2017/5/4

Y1 - 2017/5/4

N2 - Studying R&I as an irreducibly social, political and cultural process and a key process of contemporary ‘world making’, against mainstream approaches, means that R&I becomes a key analytical window into both the reproduction of current social formations and their profound problems, and the emergence of processes and new powerful groups that may disrupt, upend or otherwise transform existing systems. This ‘cultural political economy’ analysis of contemporary R&I – and especially of R&I trying to respond to the multiple crises including climate change – also offers singular insights into this key question regarding the socio-natural world currently being constructed. Drawing on evidence from the key global case study of low carbon innovation in the rising global power of China, the chapter argues that neoliberalism is facing an emergent contender for ecological dominance that may be called ‘complexity liberalism’ or simply ‘(classical) liberalism 2.0’. But this involves both associated socio-technical and economic advances and the particularly marked inequalities of ‘classical liberalism’, suggesting that current trends are towards a ‘new 19th century’. Working with this possibly emerging future towards more equitable, sustainable and convivial futures demands that R&I becomes a key strategic locus of a broadly ‘progressive’ politics.

AB - Studying R&I as an irreducibly social, political and cultural process and a key process of contemporary ‘world making’, against mainstream approaches, means that R&I becomes a key analytical window into both the reproduction of current social formations and their profound problems, and the emergence of processes and new powerful groups that may disrupt, upend or otherwise transform existing systems. This ‘cultural political economy’ analysis of contemporary R&I – and especially of R&I trying to respond to the multiple crises including climate change – also offers singular insights into this key question regarding the socio-natural world currently being constructed. Drawing on evidence from the key global case study of low carbon innovation in the rising global power of China, the chapter argues that neoliberalism is facing an emergent contender for ecological dominance that may be called ‘complexity liberalism’ or simply ‘(classical) liberalism 2.0’. But this involves both associated socio-technical and economic advances and the particularly marked inequalities of ‘classical liberalism’, suggesting that current trends are towards a ‘new 19th century’. Working with this possibly emerging future towards more equitable, sustainable and convivial futures demands that R&I becomes a key strategic locus of a broadly ‘progressive’ politics.

KW - Research & Innovation

KW - Political economy

KW - Neoliberalism

KW - China

KW - E-mobility

KW - Liberalism 2.0

U2 - 10.4324/9781315685397

DO - 10.4324/9781315685397

M3 - Chapter

SN - 9781138922983

T3 - Routledge International Handbooks

BT - The Routledge Handbook of the Political Economy of Science

A2 - Tyfield, David

A2 - Lave, Rebecca

A2 - Randalls, Samuel

A2 - Thorpe, Charles

PB - Routledge

ER -