As the emergence of a globalized economy transforms the conditions under which economic performance and productivity growth occur, the ability to innovate has come to the fore as the key factor determining the competitive advantage of national economies, entire industries and individual firms alike. Linking the economic concern with the new products and services to more general questions of the social organization of culture, this essay sets out to explore the contribution of anthropology to an understanding of how innovation occurs. Against the backdrop of theories of cultural change and the identification of parameters that define innovative environments, anthropology enquires into how historical contingency and social agency make innovation possible. In-depth ethnographic studies emphasize that innovation is much less dependent on the creative individual than on the interaction within social milieux that create what anthropologist Ulf Hannerz calls a 'cultural swirl'. Such milieux appear to function best when they incorporate heterogeneous actors and are not closed systems but exposed to serendipitous encounters and exchanges with others actors and milieux.How do new things enter the world? Who are the people who generate novel ways of doing things, of looking at the world? When and where are such new ideas most likely to emerge and take hold? And how does the world enter into new ideas? A lively interest in these questions is evident in the work of Ulf Hannerz, underlying his studies of cities and urban lives, his research on the social organization of diversity in complex cultures, and his focus on the cultural dimension of transnational mobility and communication. Enquiry into how historical contingency and social agency make cultural innovation possible is one of the threads most consistently woven into the fabric of his theoretical thought -perhaps a minor thread, but a persistent one in Ulf Hannerz's ongoing enterprise of developing a social theory of culture and a cultural theory of emerging socialities. This theoretical endeavour encourages sociologists and anthropologists alike to transcend the conventional boundaries of their disciplines. It challenges sociology to transform itself into the study of the post-national and the transnational, questioning the location and boundaries of that entity called 'society'. At the same time, it provides anthropology with the theoretical tools to analyse the cultures of late modernity 'at home', from the inside out, as a subject in its own right.For anthropologists taking their cue from the central cultural topics of late modern societies, the concern, or one might even say, obsession with innovation might provide a promising starting point for analysing contemporary cultural dynamics.

Since 1996, the European Commission's "origin foods" program has awarded protective labels to typical regional products. This ostensibly serves the purpose of maintaining traditional artifacts and local practices against the homogenizing effects of the globalized economy. Because the program emphasizes the link of an artifact to a group's history and territory, conflicts over market shares often refer to truth claims that engage authenticity and cultural identity. Two products from the Republic of Cyprus serve as cases-in-point. Loukoumi, a candy also known as Cyprus delight, was the first product to be awarded an European Union quality label in Cyprus, while the application for halloumi, a cheese traditionally made from goats and sheep milk was hotly contested and is still pending. Research shows that in Cyprus, the European Union program is deployed to the advantage of large-scale industrial producers and facilitates the homogenization of regional diversity in favor of an ethnicized national heritage.

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