Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics

Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation,
Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies

No 119: Lost in Translation? - sience, technology and the state since the 1970s

Per Högselius ()
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Per Högselius: Royal Institute of technology

Abstract: From the perspective of science and technology the period from the late 1960s marked the dawn of a number of revolutionary discoveries and inventions, such as the microprocessor and the technology of recombinant DNA. These and other developments, which as a rule originated outside Sweden, would with time open up a vast space of opportunities for industry and business as well as for other parts of society, and they would play key roles in the painful process of structural change in the Swedish economy during the decades that were to come.Against this background, Swedish state actors faced tremendous new challenges in their efforts to influence science- and technology-related activities in the country. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the Swedish state attempted to respond to these new challenges, and how state actors sought new ways to legitimate their actions – at a time when the myths of neutrality and welfare appeared more and more to be losing much of their attraction and broad acceptance.

Keywords: science policy; technological opportunity; system evolution

JEL-codes: N00; O25; O30

33 pages, April 2, 2008

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