Benoît Godin Explained

Region:	Western philosophy
Era:	21st-century philosophy
Benoît Godin
Birth Date:	May 17, 1958
Death Date:	January 5, 2021
Death Place:	CHU de Québec, Hôtel-Dieu de Québec
Education:	University of Sussex, Science Policy Research Unit SPRU (Ph.D.) Université Laval: Quebec, QC, CA, Maîtrise ès arts (Science politique)
Institutions:	Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), CA
School Tradition:	Social constructionism
Notable Ideas:	Role of ideology in the genesis of innovation

Benoît Godin was a Canadian political scientist and sociologist.^[1]

Biography

Benoît Godin is mostly known for his research into the history of statistics, statistics of innovation, and of the ideological roots of the concept of innovation.^[2] After a first degree at the Université Laval (1984) in Québec (CA), he obtained a PhD at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) the University of Sussex (UK) in 1994). From February 1993 until his death he was professor at Institut national de la recherche scientifique INRS, Québec (CA).^[1]

Work

The work of Benoît Godin covers both the history of quantification and that of innovation. He worked on measurement statistics in science, on the history of science proper, as well as that of technology and innovation. In the last years of his life he focused on the intellectual history of innovation, noting how the ‘superlative’ connotation of the term innovation is recent, in relative terms, as it had a rather negative connotation until the late 1960s or early 1970s.^[3]

Books

• Book: Godin, Benoit . The idea of technological innovation : a brief alternative history . 2020 . Edward Elgar Publishing . 978-1-83910-400-8 . Cheltenham . 1152021488.
• (As editor with Dominique Vinck) Critical Studies of Innovation: Alternative Approaches to the Pro-Innovation Bias.^[4]
• Book: Godin, Benoit . The invention of technological innovation : languages, discourses and ideology in historical perspective . 2019 . Edward Elgar Publishing . 978-1-78990-334-8 . Cheltenham, UK . 1125747489.
• Book: Godin, Benoit . Models of innovation : the history of an idea . 2017 . 978-0-262-33880-6 . Cambridge, Massachusetts . 990341355.
• Book: Godin, Benoit . Innovation contested : the idea of innovation over the centuries . 2015 . 978-1-315-85560-8 . New York, New York . 903958473.
• Bowker . Geoffrey C. . 2007-06-01 . Benoît Godin: Measurement and Statistics on Science and Technology: 1920 to the Present. . Isis . 98 . 2 . 403–404 . 10.1086/521473 . 0021-1753. ^[5]
• Book: Handbook on alternative theories of innovation . 2021 . Benoît. Godin, Gérald Gaglio, Dominique Vinck . 978-1-78990-230-3 . Cheltenham, Gloucestershire . 1285169135.

See also

• Innovation
• Science and technology studies
• Social construction of technology

External links

• Page of Benoît Godin at INRS
• Page of The Idea of Innovation, A project funded by the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
• CASTI Network, Conceptual Approaches to Science, Technology, and Innovation: An Interdisciplinary Research Network.

Notes and References

1. Web site: 2021-01-12 . Hommage au professeur Benoît Godin . 2022-04-23 . INRS . fr-FR.
2. Benoît Godin, The Culture of Numbers:From Science to Innovation, Communication presented to the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable (GUIRR)US National Academy of Sciences, Washington May 21, 2001.
3. Vinck . Dominique . 2021-01-02 . Benoît Godin (1958–2021) . Engineering Studies . en . 13 . 1 . 6–7 . 10.1080/19378629.2021.1893915 . 233815633 . 1937-8629. free .
4. Williams . Logan D. A. . 2020-06-01 . 'From Blindness to Light': A Review of Benoît Godin and Dominique Vinck (eds.), Critical Studies of Innovation: Alternative Approaches to the Pro-Innovation Bias . Minerva . en . 58 . 2 . 309–314 . 10.1007/s11024-020-09402-9 . 254841809 . 1573-1871.
5. Bowker . Geoffrey C. . 2007-06-01 . Benoît Godin: Measurement and Statistics on Science and Technology: 1920 to the Present. . Isis . 98 . 2 . 403–404 . 10.1086/521473 . 0021-1753.