Mobilising the Past: Towards a Conceptualisation of Retro‐Innovation

Abstract

In this article we develop a conceptualisation of retro‐innovation, simply defined as the purposeful revival of historic practices, ideas and/or technologies, and apply this conceptualisation to the analysis of the development of the organic farming movement in the Czech Republic. Within the agricultural sector, we argue that retro‐innovation represents a critical practice, undertaken to counter modernisation trends. Retro‐innovation processes are thus often embedded within social movements. We identify four key mechanisms of retro‐innovation: reflexivity, reminiscence, revival, integration and learning. Drawing on 25 key informant interviews, we demonstrate how the growing critique of socialist collective farms in the 1980s coalesced with new policy supports in the 1990s to enable re‐learning and revival of traditional farming practices, situating organic farming approaches as the revitalisation of positive historical practices. However, as the Czech case demonstrates, the numerous options for and social memories of past innovations can lead to fragmentation of efforts and products.

Innovación social y desarrollo territorial.Estudio de casos en áreas rurales de España y Escocia

“…De hecho, no tienen por qué incoporar elementos innovadores. En muchos casos, se puede tratar de prácticas tradicionales que se reviven o adaptan (Zagata et al, 2020).…”

Survival strategies of producers involved in short food supply chains following the outbreak of COVID‐19 pandemic: A Hungarian case‐study

“…remaining open to new activities) and diversification and risk‐sharing strategies both in terms of production and marketing can enhance the adaptive capacity of farmers (Benedek et al., 2021; Darnhofer et al., 2010a; de Roest et al., 2018). Furthermore, the ability to reorganize to respond to an unforeseen event was shown to be ensured by strategies that enable bricolage and tinkering, or in other words, that make reconfiguration and reorganisation possible (Darnhofer, 2021; Zagata et al., 2020).…”

The old, the new, or the old made new? Everyday counter-narratives of the so-called fourth agricultural revolution

“…For example, technologies could be implemented on-farm, but quickly disadopted, before becoming useful again at a later date (de Oca Munguia et al 2021 ). Technologies could break, fall into disrepair, be disregarded (Schaffer 2011 ) or they could be given a new life through the process of retro-innovation (Zagata et al 2020 ) or micro-invention (van der Veen 2010 ). Baur and Iles ( 2022 ) use a Social Construction of Technology approach to investigate how agricultural technologies both shape, and are shaped by, farmers and farm environments.…”