The permutation incorporates critique into innovation studies as a “new innovation in the paradigm”

(Brice, Ideology, engine or regime. Styles of critique and theories of innovation.. Benoît Godin, Gérald Gaglio, Dominique Vinck. Handbook on Alternative Theories of Innovation 2021, Edward Elgar, pp.369-386, 2021. hal-03442298)

The pervasiveness of innovation in the contemporary public discourse manifests itself in the omnipresence of figures like the “start-up creator”, the “entrepreneur”, or the “investor” in current economic and political debates. But the inevitability of innovation is more and more accompanied by a distinctive atmosphere of skepticism regarding its benefits, and the worldview it encompasses. As the influence of the “tech sector” grows larger, global companies such as Google, Facebook or Amazon are both heralded as seemingly never-ended sources of innovation, and regularly criticized for the ever-growing extension of their power, their disregard of public concerns such as data privacy and the social environment they promote on their grounds. The start-up culture at the heart of current innovation discourses is targeted by journalists, professionals and academics worried about the “collateral damage”, as a Guardian journalist put it, of disruptive innovation.1 Eventually, the technological developments on which so many contemporary innovations rely, in fields as diverse as artificial intelligence, renewable energy, or urban mobility, are themselves criticized for their ecological costs and their potential negative consequences in terms of labor structure or social justice. Scholars, activists and politicians have proposed critical evaluations of the current state of innovation. These critical movements have become integral to the current debates about the objectives and practices of innovation, to the point that they can be said to contribute to the dynamics of innovation itself. “New business models”, “inclusive innovation practices” or “new modes of thinking” are presented as answers to the perceived shortcomings of the current innovation environment. Like capitalism, innovation is prone to integrate its own critique to re-invent itself and further extend the perimeter of its actions (Boltanski and Chiapello 2005)