Technological field: technological innovation in the UK marine energy technology sector
dc.contributor.advisor
Prior, Nicholas
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dc.contributor.advisor
Haggett, Claire
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dc.contributor.author
Kampouris, Marios
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dc.date.accessioned
2018-05-30T10:13:37Z
dc.date.available
2018-05-30T10:13:37Z
dc.date.issued
2016-06-29
dc.description.abstract
The aim of this thesis is to develop an innovative theoretical
understanding of technological innovation as a social phenomenon and
to demonstrate the results of its application to the sector of UK's marine
energy technology. Via a creative analysis and critique of various
theoretical approaches to technology, I identify several key elements of a
theory capable of understanding technological change, which I then
develop based on the critical juxtaposition of the approaches of Pierre
Bourdieu and Cornelius Castoriadis. Technological innovation is
understood as the ultimate outcome of the relations of cooperation and
competition formed by radically creative agents, capable of ex-nihilo
creation, who participate in private and public institutions of a quasi-regulated
technological field. After arguing in favour of applying a
primarily subjectivist epistemology with objectivist elements, I present a
research methodology based on semi-structured interviews. The results
of the data analysis highlight several key features of technological
change as it takes place within the technological field of UK's marine
energy technology. Firstly, I present the ways the technological field
influences the agents therein and helps them develop their craft.
Secondly, I explore how the agents of the field use their craft as they
create ex-nihilo. Thirdly I show the interactions between the
technological field and other social institutions/spaces such as the
economic sector and the general public. Subsequently, I analyse the
internal organization of the technological field and its impact upon the
trajectories that technological innovation follows therein. Finally, I make
the first tentative steps towards developing policy advice for the sector. I
conclude that, as long as policy makers manage to develop a precise
understanding of the technological field of marine energy technology,
then they actually can design policy capable of positioning the
technological innovations therein within a preferred path.
en
dc.identifier.uri
http://hdl.handle.net/1842/30989
dc.language.iso
en
dc.publisher
The University of Edinburgh
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dc.subject
technology
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dc.subject
marine
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dc.subject
innovation
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dc.subject
energy
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dc.subject
imagination
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dc.title
Technological field: technological innovation in the UK marine energy technology sector
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dc.type
Thesis or Dissertation
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dc.type.qualificationlevel
Doctoral
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dc.type.qualificationname
PhD Doctor of Philosophy
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