Grassroots innovation and innovation democracy || A thinkpiece by Professor Adrian Smith and Professor Andy Stirling

In this thinkpiece we introduce an area of activity that has flourished for decades in all corners of the globe, namely grassroots innovation for sustainable development. We also argue why innovation in general is a matter for democracy. Combining these two points, we explore how grassroots innovation can contribute to what we call innovation democracy, and help guide innovation so that it supports rather than hinders social justice and environmental resilience. We suggest it does so in four related ways: 1. Processes of grassroots innovation in their own right cultivate wider democratic innovation practices. 2. Grassroots innovations support citizens and activities in ways that contribute to wider democracy. 3. Grassroots innovations create empowering ‘sociotechnical configurations’ that would otherwise be suppressed by existing innovation systems. 4.Grassroots innovations increase the general levels of diversity that are important for innovation democracy. The thinkpiece finishes with a few suggestions for how societies committed to innovation democracy can better support and benefit from grassroots innovation activity. Action for deeper grassroots participation in innovation democracy has to work on culture, infrastructure, training, investment, and openness.

With climate change, biodiversity loss, soil degradation and numerous other challenges humankind has certainly dug itself into a big hole. Many of the solutions to get us out of the hole exist, but innovation is still needed. In this thinkpiece for Friends of the Earth's Big Ideas Project Professor Adrian Smith and Professor Andy Stirling explain the importance of grassroots innovation and innovation democracy for innovation that helps rather than hinders sustainablilty.