Abstract
Innovation affords us modern lifestyles filled with advanced technology and social structures; however, such development comes at a significant cost to the planet, posing an existential threat to humanity. In our highly complex and networked world, there is an urgency to achieve more sustainable, just and resilient futures. As design seeks to drive sustainable and systemic change, what is the role of radical innovation? And what do we want it to be? This study revisits and reframes the somewhat ambiguous concept of ‘radical innovation’ to broaden our understanding of its role, impact, and potential. We present a machine-learning-enabled literature review of top-ranking design journals over the past 10 years, examining radical innovation across 37 design research papers. While literature frames radical innovation through a technical and process-orientated lens, we advocate for embracing radical innovation as a deeply human endeavor. Our results highlight opportunities to enable more radical transformations through innovation.
Keywords
radical innovation; transition design; transformations; design innovation
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.756
Citation
Cook, T., and Hepburn, L. (2024) Reframing radical innovation in pursuit of sustainable futures, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.756
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Reframing radical innovation in pursuit of sustainable futures
Innovation affords us modern lifestyles filled with advanced technology and social structures; however, such development comes at a significant cost to the planet, posing an existential threat to humanity. In our highly complex and networked world, there is an urgency to achieve more sustainable, just and resilient futures. As design seeks to drive sustainable and systemic change, what is the role of radical innovation? And what do we want it to be? This study revisits and reframes the somewhat ambiguous concept of ‘radical innovation’ to broaden our understanding of its role, impact, and potential. We present a machine-learning-enabled literature review of top-ranking design journals over the past 10 years, examining radical innovation across 37 design research papers. While literature frames radical innovation through a technical and process-orientated lens, we advocate for embracing radical innovation as a deeply human endeavor. Our results highlight opportunities to enable more radical transformations through innovation.