White Spaces Innovation in Sweden - Innovation policy for ... - Vinnova

WHITE SPACES INNOVATION IN SWEDENwhich acts as a kind of „rule of thumb‟. After this, a second take on „emergence‟ isidentified as the system zone where stability and instability intersect. This is known asthe „edge of chaos‟ (see below).Accordingly, this comes together by reference to Kauffman‟s (1995) early complexityscience work on stability and instability at the „edge of chaos‟ where a crucial role isplayed by clusters (centres of energy) and their isolation versus interaction. Isolation ofclusters, or the existence of one or very few in a system, promotes system stability.However, interaction (e.g. knowledge cross-pollination) facilitates path interdependenciesfrom which innovation springs in a „self-organised‟ manner. Thereafter,some degree of „sense-making‟ is redeployed to discuss the role of identity, ideologyand power in the reception by „power clusters‟ (centres of political energy) entailed bythe processes of complex system adaptation. Resilience theory, with its concepts ofmulti-level „revolt‟ and „remembering‟ also comes into play here. An example of thiscomplex process can be observed in the emergence of renewable energies, where it is a„shock‟ for society to understand that carbon energy is dangerously polluting the atmosphere(of which this planet only possesses one). This shock sets in train attention to andefforts to innovate non-polluting energies. This brings together surprising „strange attractors‟like agricultural engineering, marine engineering cross-pollinating with, forexample, windmill technology (wind power) or less strange ones like mirror technologiesthat can concentrate sunlight to heat water (early solar power). Such energy „hotspot‟regions are clusters (in the complexity science sense of being „centres of energy‟).Accordingly, they are geographical points at which path interdependencies create an„edge of chaos‟ meaning, in this case, the possible overturning of the carbon energyparadigm which has dominated the modern industrial world for two hundred years, andits replacement – aided by „power clusters‟ at multiple levels of governance - by renewableenergy which comes to be the prevailing global source.4.2 First-level Emergence of Regional InnovationFrom a „social constructivist‟ perspective, which occasionally displays small overlapswith complexity science, Shotter (1993, 57) speaks of the „strange dialogic space‟ inwhich a transitional epistemology reveals three key things about contemporary existence.The first is that the future is under perpetual construction – in other words insteadof a conventional belief that „New York will be a wonderful place when it‟s finished‟we know that „New York will never be finished‟. Continuing this theme, second, thefact that the future is unknowable does not mean it is not recognisable. Thus when„smartphones‟ appear, we know their origins in mobile telephony, on the one hand, andinternet computing, on the other. But even though this „convergence‟ was long-mooted,we maybe did not expect the „apps‟ explosion, or even „social networking‟ (Shirkey,2010) or „crowdsourcing‟ (Howe, 2009). Finally, such convergence expresses continuityand transition simultaneously, motivated by collective identity, and leading to the pro-78