Stirling, Andrew, Unset, Unset and Unset (2015) Towards innovation democracy? Participation, responsibility and precaution in innovation governance. Working Paper. STEPS, Brighton.

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Abstract

Innovation is about more than technological invention. It involves change of many kinds: cultural, organisational and behavioural as well as technological. So, in a world crying out for social justice and ecological care, innovation holds enormous progressive potential. Yet there are no guarantees that any particular realised innovation will necessarily be positive. Indeed, powerful forces ‘close down’ innovation in the directions favoured by the most privileged interests. So harnessing the positive transformative potential for innovation in any given area, is not about optimizing some single self-evidently progressive trajectory in a ‘race to the future’. Instead, it is about collaboratively exploring diverse and uncertain pathways – in ways that deliberately balance the spurious effects of incumbent power. In other words, what is needed is a more realistic, rational and vibrant ‘innovation democracy’.

Item Type:	Reports and working papers (Working Paper)
Additional Information:	STEPS Working Paper 78
Schools and Departments:	School of Business, Management and Economics > SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit Institute of Development Studies
Research Centres and Groups:	Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability Centre
Depositing User:	Andrew Stirling
Date Deposited:	14 Jul 2017 13:57
Last Modified:	14 Jul 2017 13:57
URI:	http://srodev.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/39718

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