Observing Dark Innovation: Focusing Scientific Tools on Neoliberal Blind Spots

Why does scholarship on innovation fixate on certain classes of technology? Could our research tools and techniques be concealing as much as they reveal? Ryan T. MacNeil shows how the common instrumentalities of innovation research carry neoliberal market biases. He calls for critical scholars to examine how we observe and understand innovation, offering ways forward to deconstruct and reform disciplinary conventions. This book makes a valuable contribution to critical management and science and technology studies by shedding light on the ’dark matter’ of innovation. This will be an important resource for scholars and practitioners interested in disruptive ideas about innovation.

Ryan MacNeil holds the Rath Professorship in Entrepreneurship at Acadia University.