Call for Papers to a special issue of Prometheus. Critical Studies in Innovation (ABS2*)
Title: Innovation and degrowth
Guest Editors: Steffen Roth, ESC Rennes School of Business, France. Miguel Pérez-Valls,
University of Almeria, Spain. Jari Kaivo-oja, University of Turku, Finland.
Innovation is essential for economic growth. The dominant view therefore is that innovation and
human development are inseparable. However, ecological economists have argued that an
insatiable appetite for the creative destruction leads to the self-destruction of humankind. The
key component of the growth engine (Jackson, 2011), innovation, constantly renovates the iron
cage of consumerism that eventually consumes the planet to excess (Urry, 2010), while popular
attempts to link innovation and sustainability constantly fail to green the economy as they do not
challenge the overall functionality of the growth engine (Schneider et al., 2010; van Griethuysen,
2010). Innovation is therefore considered part of the problem rather than a solution for
sustainable degrowth (Bonaiuti, 2012).
Solutions for degrowth, however, expressly draw on the concepts of innovation and growth, too.
Defined as a form of downscaling (Latouche, 2006; Fotopoulos, 2007; Schneider et al., 2010),
sustainable degrowth is consistently said to be achieved when “small to medium scale
innovations such as shared mobility, shared housing systems or community currencies (…) can
be SCALED UP and provide the building blocks of a future degrowth society” (Schneider et al.,
2010, pp. 515, emphasis added). Not all forms of innovation and growth are thus considered
destructive, with researchers in degrowth particularly advocating qualitative changes and social
innovations (Jackson, 2011; Kallis, 2011). Sustainable degrowth may therefore be discussed as
driver for change (Martínez-Alier et al., 2010), as large scale innovation challenge (Westley et al.,
2011), or, as much as any emerging concept or movement, as an innovation in itself.
Innovation and degrowth are obviously not antagonists. Yet, the dissonance produced by the
observation that alternatives to an innovation driven growth engine are assumed to be again in
innovation and growth deserves more attention. This special issue of Prometheus: Critical
Studies in Innovation therefore seeks to explore the interface of growth and innovation with a
focus on paradoxes, ironies, and inconsistencies, the observation of which allows for an almost
ludic attitude to this actually quite serious discourse. We expressly welcome contributions that
challenge background assumptions behind claims for or against growth and innovation, thus
refocusing images of non-economic forms of growth (Roth, 2014) and innovation (Roth, 2015),
rephrasing issues linked to de-linking (Kaivo-oja et al., 2014), or reconsidering social limits to
growth (Hirsch, 2005).
See the full CFP at
http://wp.me/pvO07-HF for more information. The deadline for submission is December 30, 2015
Contact and Submission Information
Revised manuscripts are due on June 30, 2016. The special issue is scheduled for publication in
late 2016. Manuscripts should be sent to the corresponding guest editor Steffen Roth as well as
to editor Josephine Maltby. Papers that pass initial screening will be sent to single blind peer
review. The guest editors select reviewers who are experts in each paper’s research field and
who are therefore likely to know the author(s), thus operating the journal’s standard single blind
review system: reviewers are anonymous, but not authors. All submissions will be
acknowledged, and every effort will be made to ensure rapid processing. Authors should feel
free to contact all guest editors at any time.
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