Social and cultural geographies of economic innovation: Proliferation of meanings, articulation with user cultures, and dialectical power relations

Abstract

Sociocultural mechanisms figure prominently in geographical accounts of economic innovation. At their heart lies a theoretical schema comprising relational assets and market rationality. This paper proposes an alternative epistemological framework for understanding social and cultural geographies of economic innovation by integrating the diverse actors, motives, power dynamics, and contexts that shape contemporary knowledge economies and technoscapes into a coherent theoretical unity. Specifically, three theoretical inquiries are proposed to explore the mutual constitution between socio-spatial dynamics of economic innovation and proliferating meaning systems adopted by knowledge workers, lived material cultures of users, and dialectical power relations inherent in knowledge economies.