Innovation as a Possibility: Technological and Social Deterministic Perspectives in Their Dialectical Resolution

Abstract

This paper analyzes the specific conditions of the innovation of the prehistoric wheeled vehicle innovation according to affordance and Eigensinn of this new technology. The use of wheeled vehicles is a social practice that results from the interests and capabilities of their users, but also from their technical affordances and eigensinn . Wheeled vehicles/wagons expand and restrict their users’ potentialities of action. The realization of possibilities of action is linked to specific interests and technical requirements. Today, wheeled vehicles are the symbol of mobility. However, this is an affordance that was realized only late in history and was not the starting point of this particular innovation.