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This paper discusses the literature on `techno-economic networks' (TENs) and `techno-economic paradigms' (TEPs). The object of study in both literatures is some form of combination of the `technical' and the `socio-economic'; the phrase `techno-economic' thus points to the need to see that the widest variety of `actors' may be of significance for particular innovations. The literature on TENs has focused mainly on describing the emergence and stabilisation of specific innovations; the literature on TEPs has focused more on the issues and problems arising from the diffusion of highly `pervasive' generic technologies. The two perspectives thus constitute different ends of a spectrum regarding the formulation of research and policy issues. The central concern of this paper is to illustrate that, by maintaining a focus on innovation and by shifting theoretical registers between the TEN and TEP perspectives, a number of …