While
Innovation
has often been identified with
technological
innovation,In the narrow sense of technology, i.e. excluding
social technology and institutions.
this is an unhelpful conflation in a situation where we
face Climate and Ecological
Breakdown and possible societal Collapse:
We have confounded the idea of innovation with technology. We need something dramatic that’s outside of this framework in order for the system to make a dramatic change.Geoffrey West, synthesised from the sources listed.
Further technological innovation will not decouple material from
Economic Growth
sufficiently to stay within planetary boundariesHaberl et al. (2020), Hickel and Kallis (2019), Vadén
et al (2020), Ward et al. (2016)
. At the same time,
Innovation
fuels continuous growth.
This means we have to extend our understanding of innovation beyond products, services and processes into the realm of social technology and our Cultural Technē and change our values and Institutions, away from Consumerism towards Sufficiency and alternative institutions like a Universal Basic Income.
References
- Haberl et al. (2020): “A systematic review of the evidence on decoupling of GDP, resource use and GHG emissions, part II: synthesizing the insights”
- Hickel and Kallis (2019): “Is Green Growth Possible?”
- Vadén et al (2020): “Raising the bar: on the type, size and timeline of a ‘successful’ decoupling”
- Ward et al. (2016): “Is Decoupling GDP Growth from Environmental Impact Possible?”
- West (2017): Scale
- West (2018a): “Using science to create a vision for the future”
- West (2018b): “Cities and Growth”
- West (2020): “On Scaling, Open-Ended Growth, and Accelerating Crisis/Innovation Cycles: Transcendence or Collapse?”