Towards Transformative Innovation

In this chapter we briefly revisit the shortcomings associated with a ‘mainstream’ framing of innovation. These include its propensity to prioritise profit over people and environment, as well as its privileging of technological innovation, which can contribute to a focus on techno-fixes and symptoms rather than drivers and root causes of twenty-first century challenges—these can often be social and political in nature. We identify key themes and commonalities across each of the chapters and signal several provocations and directions of travel for a broader project to rethink innovation that draws on insights from across the chapters. We draw particular attention to the co-existence of different framings of innovation—some more transformative than others. Working towards transformative innovation is a challenging process, one that can be subject to ‘slippage’ back to business-as-usual. Slippage can be intentional, but it can also be a by-product of the challenge of effecting change in a world saturated with already established and habituated logics, practices, and ways of doing things. We propose several ways in which innovation can be supported to work towards transformation to address the great challenges facing society in the twenty-first century in ways that are sustainable, equitable and just. We present provocations which point to the importance, amongst other things, of shifting away from venture capital-based discourses of change as well as building capacity for imagination, agency and (social) impact at an institutional and infrastructural level. We emphasise that innovation for today’s pressing challenges is as much about innovating creative capacities for listening, learning, empathy, collaboration and connecting across sectors and communities, as it is the development of new technical efficiencies and capabilities. It is about the generation of new ways of organising, relating and living.