Post-growth Innovation – A study of Innovation and innovation resistance detached from economic growth

This project focuses on innovation detached from the goal of economic growth. It employs the definition of innovation, “invoking change into established order”, and investigates innovation processes in opposition to capitalist markets. It highlights that innovation – no matter what it is – cannot be seen as inherently good or bad; the value verdict is always made from a particular perspective in time and space. Therefore, different innovation processes might be in direct opposition to each other, and this project investigates how this tension unfolds. The focus is on innovation processes in the food system and on alternative food networks organising for a future significantly different from the ones envisioned by policy and the food industry.

The primary purpose of the project is to develop an innovation theory detached from economic growth, through the study of resilient, sustainable and small-scale food production and consumption in Sweden.