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Innovation and Its Enemies
Book

Innovation and Its Enemies

Why People Resist New Technologies

Calestous Juma
Oxford UP, 2016

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative

Recommendation

This compelling overview retells the history of innovation and highlights why people resist new technologies. Calestous Juma, founding director of the African Centre for Technology Studies in Nairobi, recounts case studies of opposition to innovation that touch on electricity, margarine, the introduction of coffee and mechanical refrigeration. Juma writes with great compassion about resistance to innovation as he explains different viewpoints stemming from various aspects of religion, culture and economic self-interest. getAbstract recommends his treatise to anyone interested in history, technology and culture, and to anyone responsible for making policy.

Take-Aways

  • Innovation drives economic growth, but may clash with other values.
  • People need mechanisms for dealing with rapid innovation.
  • They resist innovations when the risks seem larger than the benefits.

About the Author

Calestous Juma is the founding director of the African Centre for Technology Studies in Nairobi and foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences.

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    B. E. 7 years ago
    "As the world population increases, so does the demand for protein." This is a common misconception. We produce more than enough protein for every human on this planet by growing legumes, but we loose 95% by feeding them to the livestock...
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      7 years ago
      Where is the misconception? As the world population increases, so does the demand for protein. That is true.

      Producing legumes is the supply side.