Introduction: Setting the Scene

This chapter introduces the rationale for Rethinking Innovation. It highlights how innovation has played a pivotal role in contributing to a present that is healthier and wealthier for many than in the past. But it argues that innovation has also left many behind, benefiting some more than others. At the same time, our fragile planet is in crisis. Business-as-usual must change. We argue that innovation has important work to do, but how we think about innovation needs to change—it needs to be rethought. The chapter introduces how and why mainstream approaches to innovation are insufficient to meet the challenges we face as a society, and not only that, can be implicated in contributing to social inequality and environmental degradation. We make the case that innovation must shift away from a predominant focus on product development, competition, profit, extractivism and the commercialisation of science and technology. Instead, it needs to focus on sustainability transformations, conviviality, care, collaboration, equality, and the improved health of people and planet. This requires looking beyond the mainstream, engaging with diverse publics, knowledges, and value systems. In the chapter we set out some contemporary ideas, concepts, and efforts which make the case for ‘rethinking’ and shifting the direction of travel of innovation, notably by aligning innovation with challenge-based issues and goals such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We note that this ‘rethinking’ does not have to be done from scratch—there are several helpful concepts and approaches that we can look to for inspiration, including (but not limited to) responsible innovation, inclusive innovation, reverse innovation, social innovation, and sustainable innovation, which we go on to introduce and describe in subsequent chapters. Such a rethinking encourages us to pause, take stock, and reflect on the goals for innovation and its purposes. We argue that questions of who and what is benefiting from innovation and how innovation can be configured towards more responsible, equitable, and sustainable futures for both people and planet, have never been more pressing.