Foreword

Summary

It was Hannah Arendt who once famously said that most evil is done by those who never make up their minds to be good or evil. In the Richard IIIs, Edmunds, Iagos and Don Johns we can readily recognize malice and intent. Indeed, they may even tell us they want ‘to prove a villain’. Arendt is talking about a different kind of villain: those who do not think, those who do not reflect on the meaning or consequences of their actions, or inactions. Those who choose not to choose.

Innovation can be defined in many ways, but for me the key thing is that it is about creating futures, in sometimes profound and disruptive ways. Innovation is a powerful thing, but it also has the propensity to be tragically banal. Think about all its promise, potential and power and then think about what it is actually being used for. At a time of great danger for our planet and the people and non-people who inhabit it, think about the futures innovation could create, and the ones innovation is actually creating. We desperately need innovation to help us secure a future on this planet that is sustainable, flourishing, just and equitable, but that is not what we are getting. Not all innovation, to be sure. But a great deal, and that is the sad truth.

With innovation I suggest the time has come to choose to choose. What kind of futures do we want (or rather need), and want innovation to help create? How can we collectively and substantively engage with those futures? And what does that mean for the re-framing and practice of innovation now? These for me are the departure points for taking responsibility for the future and for responsible innovation.

Responsible innovation, or at least the version I am familiar with, has always been cognisant and critical about the economic and political contexts within which it sits (I won't go on about second order reflexivity here, other than to stress its importance). This is a book that goes further. After reflecting on this context, the authors have made a choice. They contend that innovation is trapped in its ‘feed-the-market’ ties as the engine of an unsustainable, growth-led economic order.