Innovation and development in agricultural and food systems

Abstract

Much more than a fashionable notion or buzzword, innovation has become a key issue for companies, policies and, more generally, society. In the Global North as in the Global South, innovating, i.e. introducing a novelty in an economic and social environment, appears more than ever as a factor of competitiveness for enterprises, leading to cost reductions, improved productivity or product quality, or the creation of new markets in a context of globalized competition (Porter and Heppelmann, 2014). In an extension of Schumpeter's (1934) work, innovation is more widely reaffirmed as a source of macroeconomic growth, at the heart now of a 'knowledge economy', deriving value from creativity, learning and communication (Foray, 2004; Stiglitz and Greenwald, 2014). It is also put forward as a solution to the problems generated by economic development itself, especially in the ecological, energy and food fields, leading to what Callon et al. (2015) call a regime of the economy of techno-scientific promises. Finally, across frontiers opened up by new technologies, in the digital and biotechnology fields for example, innovation is envisaged as the possible catalyst of a more radical social transformation, moving the world towards increased knowledge sharing (Rifkin, 2011), transhumanism (Ferry, 2016) and a break with the current forms of capitalism (Latouche, 2006). Of course, critical points of view question this craze for innovation (Godin and Vinck, 2017; Petit, 2015). Both creative and destructive, innovation can lead to social exclusion, destroy jobs and businesses, result in monopolies and misappropriations, and generate new technical and societal risks that need to be understood and addressed (Joly et al., 2015; Temple et al., 2018). But these critics often end up relying on the notion of innovation itself to suggest, or sometimes rehabilitate, alternative paths or avenues of resistance, for example through innovations qualified as 'social' or 'frugal'. Whether in the scientific, political, industrial arenas, or more broadly those of entrepreneurship and the media, innovation appears as a notion that is open to analysis, encouragement and criticism regarding societal changes. But it is also capable of underpinning the transformations of our contemporary societies. This primacy of innovation seems to have won over every corner of society, attracting attention, debate and engagement in all its economic sectors. It is in this context that this book presents contemporary perspectives on innovation in one of these sectors: agriculture and food. Several books and collection of studies have helped shed light on the issue of innovation in agriculture from different disciplinary and geographical perspectives (

The Defining Characteristics of Agroecosystem Living Labs

“…Innovation thus develops within local socio-technical networks [10][11][12]. However, like in many other sectors, the innovation flows of the agriculture and agri-food sector follow their own rhythm and specificities, and this is due to four main factors [13]. First, there is the connection with nature and the living system, which is at the heart of the sector and acts as common context and opportunity for change.…”

Spaces of Innovation and Women Rural Entrepreneurship in Italy

“…In the first group, high levels of entrepreneurial orientation boost innovation adoption: numerous innovations have been recently introduced, ranging from the implementation of new practices (for instance, organic farming), new knowledge, supported by effective knowledge networks and new organizational arrangements. Consequently, in these farms, implementation of innovation involves either the hardware (new techniques) and the software (new knowledge) and the orgware (new institutions and organizations) (Faure et al, 2018). Moreover, networking skills of farmers have brought about strong ties with intermediaries and facilitators of innovation, who act as innovation brokers.…”

The coexistence of agricultural and food models at the territorial scale: an analytical framework for a research agenda

“…The second dimension of analysis of the coexistence of agricultural and food models concerns innovation (Faure et al 2018). This notion, which was first conceptualized in the twentieth century, refers primarily to a technical and/or organizational process by which something new is invented, built, conceptualized, appropriated and transformed by actors, which immediately calls for an examination of this process's determinants and trajectories (Temple et al 2018).…”