{"id":24639,"date":"2019-10-28T17:01:39","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T00:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=24639"},"modified":"2019-10-28T17:03:58","modified_gmt":"2019-10-29T00:03:58","slug":"capitalism-made-your-iphone-and-other-innovative-hidden-gems-from-critical-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/capitalism-made-your-iphone-and-other-innovative-hidden-gems-from-critical-theory\/","title":{"rendered":"“Capitalism Made your iPhone\u201d and Other Innovative Hidden Gems from Critical Theory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stuart Sim and Borin Van Loon\u2019s graphic book, <\/span>Critical Theory,<\/span><\/i> gave me an incredible opportunity this week to practice some of the most important innovative principles: <\/span>postponing judgment and embracing being a beginner<\/b>. Critical Theory and Decrustivism are blaring weak spots in my educational background, so this provided perfect grounds for training in these two areas. As I deferred judgement and embraced being a beginner, I was surprised to find some innovative principles hidden in the field of Critical Theory – I think they were hidden somewhere in Karl Marxy\u2019s beard. Consider the following takeaways:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Question Everything<\/b><\/p>\n

Frankfurt School admittedly challenged every known assumption and questioned everything. One graphic has Herbert Marcus saying, \u201cOur approach was based in Marxism, but was just as willing to criticize the failings of the Soviet Union as those of Western society\u201d (Sim, 39). To the praise of Marxist thinkers, if one has new wine, there needs to be new wineskins, and the old need to be dismantled. That was accomplished in spades with the Frankfurt School and others. We have a rule on our Innovation Team of \u201cno sacred cows,\u201d and we mean that every previous topic, decision, project, program or decision is always available to be revisited. Questions in their essence are benign, but powerful learning opportunities. One method for discerning underlying problems is to ask the question \u201cWhy?\u201d five times. For (a semi-hypothetical) example: We had to cancel a summer mission trip with students. Why? Because we didn\u2019t have enough men to round out the group and make a safe environment (travelling to the Middle East). Why? Because last year was a very low year for sending men overseas. Why? Because men didn\u2019t hear about the opportunity Why? Because over 80% of those searching for missions online are women. Why? Because\u2026. Because\u2026. Well, this needs some thought,\u00a0 but we have found a problem worth addressing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wearing New Lenses to see EVERYTHING<\/b><\/p>\n

As kingdom innovators (and by this I mean people seeking to bring fresh thinking to add kingdom value) we must wear new lenses to see the world. We are called as Christians to have the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5) who saw the world completely differently. It is our imperative to see situations in a way that brings shalom for the common good – to imagine what it might look like for the kingdom to come, for God\u2019s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. We could call these, \u201cThy kingdom come\u201d glasses. We don\u2019t just rethink religious services, but every theory and field are under the gaze with these glasses. Critical Theorists have modeled this near perfectly by using critical theory \u201cto cover the entire scope of other theories\u201d (Sim, 39). Like the all-seeing Eye of Sauron, there wasn\u2019t a single field that escaped their targeting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Power of Narrative and the Arts<\/b><\/p>\n

While Lyotard\u2019s <\/span>The Postmodern Condition <\/span><\/i>attacked grand narratives and championed marginalized \u201clittle narratives\u201d (Sim, 98), no one I\u2019ve come across has challenged the power of narratives themselves. This image by Sim has an old man playing cards commenting, \u201cNarrative itself is a basic human construction. It needs no more foundation or justification on that\u201d (98). The arts capture our imagination like propositional truths never will. The arts are not summaries or distillation of propositional truths, but are a spot of primacy from which the propositional truths flow. Sim depicts the artist Arnold Schoenberg in one of his graphics saying, \u201cA new political paradigm requires a new art to go along with it\u201d (46). Innovations with lasting power tap into a narrative and capture our imagination for an alternate possible future.<\/span><\/p>\n

All play<\/b><\/p>\n

Marxist thought is built on the value of the lower class who are inherently full of dignity and potential energy. Innovation has a paradoxical reality. Everett Rogers, the guru of innovation diffusion, traces the empirical proof therin:<\/span><\/p>\n

The individuals or other units in a system who most need the benefits of a new idea\u2026 are generally the last to adopt an innovation. The units in a system who adopt first generally least need the benefits of the innovation. This paradoxical relationship between innovativeness and need for the benefits of an innovation tends to widen socioeconomic gaps between the higher and lower socioeconomic individuals in a system. (Rogers, 295)<\/span><\/p>\n

I concede one strength of Marxism lies in the desire for the contribution of the lower class, not just the elite. I\u2019m intrigued in the issue of social justice in innovation and how the process itself can be more fair and just. You can expect more on this from me in the coming weeks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Innovation under Socialism<\/b><\/p>\n

Sim\u2019s text was a launching point for my interest in how innovation might differ in systems other than capitalism. I quickly stumbled on this picture (please excuse the vulgarity):\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I was eager to get some context and commentary on this photo from an outside voice like Vanessa A. Bee\u2019s article, \u201cInnovation under Socialism: What the \u2018Capitalism Built your iPhone\u2019 Ignores.\u201d Bee identifies four ingredients to innovation: 1) problems to solve, 2) capital and resources\u00a0 available to innovate, 3) human capital, 4) individual opportunities to create and it\u2019s proper motivation. She moves on to argue that these four ingredients are best actualized under the core principles of socialism. Her strongest point centers around the hampering effects profit can bring as the lead motivation for innovating. She warns:<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But prioritizing profit is a double-edged sword that can hamper innovation. Owning the proprietary rights allows private firms to block workers\u2026 who put labor into the innovation process from applying the extensive technical expertise and intimate understanding of the product to improve the innovation substantially.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As I consider the training ground of deferring judgment and embracing being a beginner, I offer my own graphic a la Sim:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

__<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bee, Veronica A. \u201cInnovation Under Socialism: What the \u2018Capitalism Built your iPhone\u2019 Ignores.\u201d <\/span>Current Affairs. <\/span><\/i>October 24, 2018. Accessed October 28, 2019. <\/span>https:\/\/www.currentaffairs.org\/2018\/10\/innovation-under-socialism<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Robers, Everett M. <\/span>Diffusion of Innovations. <\/span><\/i>(New York: Free Press, 2003)<\/span><\/p>\n

Sim, Stuart and Borin Van Loon. <\/span>Introducing Critical Theory.<\/span><\/i> (UK: Icon Books, 2012)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stuart Sim and Borin Van Loon\u2019s graphic book, Critical Theory, gave me an incredible opportunity this week to practice some of the most important innovative principles: postponing judgment and embracing being a beginner. Critical Theory and Decrustivism are blaring weak spots in my educational background, so this provided perfect grounds for training in these two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1579,1672],"class_list":["post-24639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-innovation","tag-sim","cohort-lgp10"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24639"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24644,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24639\/revisions\/24644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}