15: Innovation policy in post-growth economies? (Riina Bhatia, Nina Rilla, Mika Nieminen, Matti Pihlajamaa, Peter Biegelbauer, Klaus Kubeczko, Petra Wagner)
Recently, increasing attention has been paid to the type and role of economic growth in sustainability transitions. While some argue for the need for green growth, others place emphasis on moving towards post-growth economies that abandon economic growth as a guiding principle. Traditionally, the green growth debates have emphasized the role of green and sustainable innovations for achieving sustainability and decoupling economic growth from carbon emissions and material consumption (Asafu-Adjaye, et al., 2015). Rather contrary, some scholars argue for post- and de-growth solutions emphasizing the need for a controlled and planned downscaling of production and consumption (Hickel, 2020; Parrique, et al., 2019; Jackson, 2016). The relationship between innovation policy and economic growth has historically been symbiotic. Increased economic growth and the welfare it generates have been the central normative premises for justifying investments in research and innovation. Recent shifts toward transformative, mission- and challenge-oriented innovation policies address the need to move beyond this one-sided goal (Haddad et al., 2022; Schot & Steinmüller, 2018; Mazzucato, 2021; Lindner 2021). Despite these advances, the transformative ideas and openings still seem to operate largely within the current socio-political and socio-economic systems, and studies are based on assumptions on market economy mechanisms, profit-making and the ability to scale up innovations (whether green, inclusive, sustainable) to substitute unsustainable practices. This focus arguably overlooks the critical question of whether economic growth can be compatible with ecological and social sustainability (Moore, 2016). To this end, literature on varieties of capitalism and post-growth economies suggests alternative forms of innovation as pathways to sustainability (Pansera and Fressoli, 2020). Such forms of innovations investigate e.g., frugal, bottom-up, and social innovation, not-for-profit organizations, and alternative forms of value creation as pathways to sustainability (Kerschner et al., 2018).
In this track, we ask, is economic growth, as the major historical premise for innovation policy, compatible with the desire to address sustainability challenges? Is the relationship between them unsettled or do we need both models? What does post-growth mean for innovation policy or is it unrealistic? What would be innovation policy in and for post-growth economies? We welcome both theoretical and empirical papers approaching these questions from multiple perspectives. They can be related to (but are not limited to) the following topics:
- Background assumptions and logic of different innovation policy approaches
- Potential tensions or compatibilities between various innovation policy approaches
- Innovation and innovation policy from a post-growth perspective
- Studies on post-growth innovations and alternative innovations for socio-economic change
- Innovations in doughnut economics, wellbeing economies, degrowth
- New value creation models for transformative and post-growth economies
- Impact assessment of transformative and post-growth innovations
- Perspectives beyond Europe and Global North
- Inclusion & diversity in new innovation policy approaches
- Post-growth imaginaries
- Relationship between RRI, transformation, and post-growth innovation?
Keywords: post-growth, innovation policy, sustainability, new value creation