New Horizons for Innovation Studies: Doing Without, Doing With Less

This timely book takes an insightful look at rethinking innovation and how lessons can be learnt from what is a major turning point in our contemporary societies: the urgent need to reduce the use or consumption of certain substances and technologies due to the dangers they pose to our environments and current way of life. Using theoretical reflection and empirical work in a broad range of sectors including agriculture, food, health, religion, energy, packaging, markets and digital technology, eminent scholars utilise new perspectives to enrich our understanding of innovation processes and how these can be transformed.

New Horizons for Innovation Studies provides a deep dive into what our production and consumption processes are, how they could be innovated differently and how those innovations could interrogate social science concepts and in particular science and technology studies. Chapters explore key case studies and topics for innovation studies, such as the reduced use of antibiotics and pesticides, car-free cities, bans on plastic use and decreasing meat consumption. Further, the book challenges both the partial and complete withdrawal of certain substances and technologies that currently sit at the heart of our contemporary lifestyles, and explores the emergence of alternatives as well as the potential resistance, risks and outcomes.

This engaging book will provide a thought-provoking read for scholars and graduate students in innovation policy, science and technology studies and public policy.

Edited by Frédéric Goulet, Researcher, UMR Innovation, Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD), France, and Visiting scientist, Sustainable Agrifood Systems Program, Centro internacional de mejoramiento de maíz y trigo (CIMMYT), Mexico and Dominique Vinck, Professor, STS Lab, Institut des Sciences Sociales, University of Lausanne, Switzerland