Selection Processes and Appropriability in Art, Science and Technology

Recently, there has been a mutually beneficial interchange of models and ideas between the sociology of science and the economics of technological innovation. Concepts such as the "paradigm" and the "network" seem to lend themselves to useful application in both fields. To these is added the concept of the "selection system". The major aim of this paper is to show that the development of the arts can be described using the same conceptual framework. This allows the development of hypotheses concerning the relationship between art, science and technology, and also about the effect of appropriability conditions.