Peter Dicken 2015 Technological Change Gales of Creative

© Peter Dicken 2015

Technological Change: ‘Gales of Creative Destruction’ Global Shift Chapter 4

Review • Concepts to Review – Globalization – Global production networks (GPNs) • Key Words – Technology, technological change, Kondratiev long waves, information and communications technology, digital divides

Definition of Technological Change • ‘a socially and institutionally embedded process’ • Process of change involves more than just technological change • Four types of technological change – incremental innovations – radical innovations – changes of technology system – changes in the techno-economic paradigm

Kondratiev Long Waves • Capitalism goes in cycles of prosperity, recession, depression and recovery • Five stages of production, mapping onto Kondratiev waves – manufacture, machinofacture, Taylorism, Fordism and flexible production • The fifth Kondratiev long wave is associated with information and communications technology

Transportation and Communication Technologies • Transportation technologies – Commercial jet aircraft, and containerization: recent developments – ‘Both the time and the relative cost of transporting materials, products, and people have fallen dramatically as the result of technological innovations in the transportation media’ • Communication technologies – Satellites and optical fibre cables: most significant development – The Internet – Moving away from individual computer systems to networked systems provided through the Internet (e. g. ‘cloud computing’) – Smartphones • Electronic mass media • Wireless communication

Social Impact of Transportation and Communications Technologies • Digital divides • The product life cycle • Current trends – – – information intensity enhanced flexibility of production diversity of production systems increased specialization standardization of operations flexibility and modularity in production processes