Innovation is the cornerstone of a terminology of economic and social development in which various discourses compete over meaning. However, it requires practice based research to investigate to what extent the modern understanding of what it might actually mean to create something new has been dominated by notions of mastering and exploiting the forces of nature, leading to models of extractivism, exploitation, and colonial conquest.
These modalities seem to have effectively eliminated entire fields of traditional knowledge and heritage skills, presenting them as empty, void, or blank spaces that can be conquered by technologies subsequently labelled as new. Such a notion of creativity and innovation promotes the illusions of a sovereign individual and exalts individual enterprise.
Rethinking the role of creativity in the processes of the climate transition entails a shift from a model of entrepreneurship based on individual, short-term incentives to one that is driven by co-agency and new capacities to act together in sustainable ways.
The challenge of recontextualising innovation involves a process of deconstruction and reconstruction of the established paradigms of creating novelty, while avoiding the pitfalls of romanticising pre-colonial or nomadic communities. It seeks for innovation potential of places and fields where it is least expected. It employs innovative methodologies that integrate traditional or heritage skills with digital technologies and networking capabilities, thereby facilitating collective agency in novel assemblages for unlearning and undoing what is ostensibly old and supposedly new.
Specific challenges for PACESETTERS main target groups:
- For artists and creatives: Discovery of novel solutions by leveraging creative confidence and competence to re-use traditional techniques
- For research: Assessing the impact and quality of the outcomes regarding an increase or decrease of the ability to adapt to change and the will to create change
- For policymakers: Supporting integrative solutions to revitalise commons as a creative resilience strategy that is instrumental for the transition into sustainable economies
For finance and investment: Revaluing the concept of technique while rethinking conventional approaches to competitiveness that are exclusively based on technological innovation and emphasise closing off IPR.