Reverse salients

Introduced by Thomas P. Hughes in his book, Networks of Power (1983), “reverse salients” denotes components or subsystems that lag behind or underperform, hindering the development of a larger system.

Originally borrowed from military terminology denoting a backward bulge in an advancing front line; applied components in an expanding/developing system that have fallen behind or out of phase with the rest of the system.

Example: The low resistance of incandescent light filaments was a reverse salient impeding the growth of electric lighting until higher resistance filaments were innovated.

Example: The cost and capacity of batteries has been a persistent reverse salient in the development and popularisation of EVs, slowing their adoption.

Example: Lack of interoperability or standardisation in smart home and IoT products; integrating the ecosystem becomes more important than product innovation.

Systemic chokepoints or bottlenecks! Unevenness, jaggedness.

Reverse salients act as focusing devices, attracting resources and efforts to resolve the bottlenecks (relocated from elsewhere?).

Can be about the technical or the social-organisational dimensions of the system.

• [⎈] Analyse failed/stalled technological systems through the lens of unresolved reverse salients. How do they help explain arrested development?
• [?] How can reverse salients be identified within complex sociotechnical systems? What frameworks or methods can aid in this process?
• [?] Are reverse salients an inevitable feature of large-scale systems? Can they be anticipated or are they only identified retrospectively?
• [&] See also: pace layers, latency? (all deal with uneven rates of development/sociotechnical change)
• [&] Investigate the interplay of reverse salients and technological lock-in, path dependence, and sociotechnical transitions.

Backlinks

: Latency : Pace layers