The Concept of Learning within the Systems of Innovation Approaches

The OECD, the EU, and a growing number of national governments have enthusiastically agreed with ideas about innovation systems. At the center of this set of ideas is the notion that learning is the most important process in the economy of the information age. This paper is an epistemological and methodological inquiry into the concept of learning within what economists call ‘the systems of innovation approaches’. Two conclusions are drawn: (1) notions concerning the concept of learning within this new framework of economic thinking are, in general, ambiguous; (2) furthermore, and in particular, ideas of expansive and collective learning in complex systems, ideas that more or less define the concept of innovation, are virtually non-existent within the framework.