Perhaps not exactly a licence to print money

If there is - as communication theorist and sociologist Everett Rogers argues - a "pro-innovation bias" in innovation research, it's likely that there is also a whiff of privilege about it, as well.

In his seminal work, Rogers postulates that there are five stages of innovation. The model looks like this:

The first two groups in this model - the innovators and the early adopters - are described as being highly influential, well-connected, well-educated, well-off and generally more willing than others to accept risk - and to fail occasionally. At least one definition of privilege sounds remarkably similar: "...certain social advantages, benefits, or degrees of prestige and respect that an individual has by virtue of belonging to certain social identity groups. Within American and other Western societies, these privileged social identities—of people who have historically occupied positions of dominance over others—include whites, males, heterosexuals, Christians, and the wealthy, among others."

There's not much research on the relationship between technological diffusion and marginalized communities - essentially, everyone else. At the same time, there have been plenty of studies that look at how the digital divide affects these groups, including this one, this one, and this one, just to offer a few examples.

Rogers argues that early adopters must know about an innovation before they can decide to use it. There are other elements that factor into the decision as well, including utility and ease of use. However, it's not a leap to imagine that people from marginalized groups - lacking the resources, education, connections and means of their more affluent counterparts - may be less likely to follow that path. 

Strange as it may seem, technology itself - along with public institutions - may offer something of a resolution to address this gap. Research shows that public libraries, for example, have begun offering access to 3D printers. Long a community resource without barriers, these repositories of knowledge are helping to ensure access to some of the most innovative technology there is. Toronto Public Library now offers this service in eight of its locations, many of them in underserviced neighbourhoods. Or at least, TPL will resume doing so when it re-opens its doors to the public.

The popularity of these devices has exploded in recent years, and there is some evidence that it is set to expand again by a factor of 10 in the decade that began in 2016. According to the influential business publication Forbes Magazine, 80 per cent of all enterprises believe that 3D printing will help them innovate more quickly.

This raises some interesting questions about research into the diffusion of technology, pertaining to questions of privilege: who are the researchers conducting this work? Who are their subjects? What biases, hidden or overt, do they bring to the task? What questions are they asking, and to what extent are those questions - and the resulting analysis - framed by the degree of privilege they enjoy?

Of course, these same questions can apply to almost any aspect of technology. When it comes to diffusion of innovation, though, there's a notable lack of information about who benefits and who doesn't.