The Role of Design in Evolutionary Models of Technological Change

Technological change is one of the central concerns of several disciplines, insofar as they seek to explain the causes and effects that drive transformations in the technical environment. Among the diverse explanatory approaches, one finds a group of theories inspired by Darwinian evolutionism, which is more than a biological metaphor and can be applied to many historical and adaptive processes, including technical change. Despite their explanatory strengths, however, these evolutionary approaches fail to account adequately for the emergence of technical innovations---those innovations that reshape landscapes of possibility and expand the creative horizon for further innovations. This article argues that the theories and methodologies of contemporary industrial design open up a promising explanatory avenue for understanding technical innovation, thereby helping to overcome some of the limitations of evolutionary models of technological change.