{"title":"能源、城市化和复杂性:迈向创新的多尺度生态经济理论","authors":"Stefano Menegat","doi":"10.1016/j.ecolecon.2024.108230","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The concept of innovation is at the core of any attempt to draft a meaningful theory of economic change. Whether by reducing innovations to the “myth of the sole inventor” or by adopting technological determinism, dominant narratives ignore the complexity of the socio-ecological relations underpinning patterns of societal transformation. This article proposes a framework grounded in critical realism and ecological economics to characterise innovations as elements endogenous to historical patterns of socio-ecological reproduction. Departing from Schumpeter's definition of creative response and Georgescu-Roegen's concept of exosomatic evolution, I discuss three main arguments: first, the relation between innovations and socio-economic change is impredicative, because the direction of causality cannot be clearly established; second, the emergence of innovations is bounded by declining marginal returns to economic complexity. Third, economic change has to be contextualised in relation to historical cycles of energy use and economic complexification. These arguments corroborate the hypothesis that a long-lasting S-shaped wave of innovation took place in capitalist economies over the past two centuries. This article has several implications for the study of both innovation waves and economic growth, in particular, by proposing a new framework to conceptualise productivity, energy, and labour as cornerstones of a multi-scale theory of innovation.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51021,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Economics","volume":"222 ","pages":"Article 108230"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800924001277/pdfft?md5=288183f9e868408d7498be2d8daffe63&pid=1-s2.0-S0921800924001277-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Energy, urbanization, and complexity: Towards a multi-scale ecological economic theory of innovation\",\"authors\":\"Stefano Menegat\",\"doi\":\"10.1016/j.ecolecon.2024.108230\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"<div><p>The concept of innovation is at the core of any attempt to draft a meaningful theory of economic change. 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引用次数: 0
摘要
创新概念是任何试图起草有意义的经济变革理论的核心。无论是将创新归结为 "唯一发明者的神话",还是采用技术决定论,主流论述都忽视了支撑社会变革模式的社会生态关系的复杂性。本文提出了一个以批判现实主义和生态经济学为基础的框架,将创新描述为社会生态再生产历史模式的内生要素。从熊彼特的创造性反应定义和乔治斯库-罗根的外生进化概念出发,我讨论了三个主要论点:第一,创新与社会经济变革之间的关系是不可预知的,因为因果关系的方向无法明确确定;第二,创新的出现受到经济复杂性边际收益递减的限制。第三,经济变化必须与能源使用和经济复杂化的历史周期联系起来。这些论点证实了一个假设,即在过去两个世纪中,资本主义经济体出现了持久的 S 型创新浪潮。这篇文章对创新浪潮和经济增长的研究有若干影响,特别是提出了一个新的框架,将生产力、能源和劳动力概念化,作为多尺度创新理论的基石。
Energy, urbanization, and complexity: Towards a multi-scale ecological economic theory of innovation
The concept of innovation is at the core of any attempt to draft a meaningful theory of economic change. Whether by reducing innovations to the “myth of the sole inventor” or by adopting technological determinism, dominant narratives ignore the complexity of the socio-ecological relations underpinning patterns of societal transformation. This article proposes a framework grounded in critical realism and ecological economics to characterise innovations as elements endogenous to historical patterns of socio-ecological reproduction. Departing from Schumpeter's definition of creative response and Georgescu-Roegen's concept of exosomatic evolution, I discuss three main arguments: first, the relation between innovations and socio-economic change is impredicative, because the direction of causality cannot be clearly established; second, the emergence of innovations is bounded by declining marginal returns to economic complexity. Third, economic change has to be contextualised in relation to historical cycles of energy use and economic complexification. These arguments corroborate the hypothesis that a long-lasting S-shaped wave of innovation took place in capitalist economies over the past two centuries. This article has several implications for the study of both innovation waves and economic growth, in particular, by proposing a new framework to conceptualise productivity, energy, and labour as cornerstones of a multi-scale theory of innovation.
期刊介绍:
Ecological Economics is concerned with extending and integrating the understanding of the interfaces and interplay between "nature''s household" (ecosystems) and "humanity''s household" (the economy). Ecological economics is an interdisciplinary field defined by a set of concrete problems or challenges related to governing economic activity in a way that promotes human well-being, sustainability, and justice. The journal thus emphasizes critical work that draws on and integrates elements of ecological science, economics, and the analysis of values, behaviors, cultural practices, institutional structures, and societal dynamics. The journal is transdisciplinary in spirit and methodologically open, drawing on the insights offered by a variety of intellectual traditions, and appealing to a diverse readership.
Specific research areas covered include: valuation of natural resources, sustainable agriculture and development, ecologically integrated technology, integrated ecologic-economic modelling at scales from local to regional to global, implications of thermodynamics for economics and ecology, renewable resource management and conservation, critical assessments of the basic assumptions underlying current economic and ecological paradigms and the implications of alternative assumptions, economic and ecological consequences of genetically engineered organisms, and gene pool inventory and management, alternative principles for valuing natural wealth, integrating natural resources and environmental services into national income and wealth accounts, methods of implementing efficient environmental policies, case studies of economic-ecologic conflict or harmony, etc. New issues in this area are rapidly emerging and will find a ready forum in Ecological Economics.