Labour market implications for the sustainable transition

This chapter addresses the link between innovation and society from the perspective of inclusive innovation. Building on the theory of inclusive innovation and the multilevel perspective on sociotechnical transitions, we develop the proposition that there are pressures towards increased inclusiveness in innovation, not only from the niches of radically different innovation experiments but also from the regime and even landscape levels. We outline the drivers towards inclusiveness transitions in innovation systems and use the agri-food sector as an example. Our exploration suggests that these pressures point towards changes at the regime level, including structural and post-structural dimensions and the underlying governance of innovation. As is typical in the early stages of sociotechnical system transformations, there are also considerable forces opposing inclusiveness transitions or favouring certain inclusiveness pathways over others. This chapter aims to encourage researchers to engage in research investigating inclusive innovation niches, including purposeful inclusive experimentation with inclusive innovation practices, as well as research linking all three levels, namely niches, regimes and landscapes, to fully formulate a theory of inclusiveness transitions in innovation systems, and to ascertain whether the current pressures are, indeed, likely to lead to more inclusive innovation systems on a global level and across sectors.