Innovation, education and sustainable way of life

between neoliberal hybris and the sophrosine of another possible imaginary

Abstract

This text discusses the relationship between innovation and education in order to situate it in an expanded way in relation to the reductionist perspectives that have guided it in the educational scenario. Firstly, the “Promethean hybris” inherent in the neoliberal conception of innovation is addressed, pointing out that its disproportion, based on the principle of performance and competition, ends up adopting a vision that reduces innovation to its economic and technological dimension, as well as assuming it to be value-neutral. Next, with the support of the work of economist Mariana Mazzucato, we show that the neoliberal view of innovation is based on the notion of value as “value extraction” and that replacing it with the concept of “value creation” makes it possible to think of innovation in terms of sustainable development. In the last step, we discuss how the neoliberal innovationist hybris is advancing upon education and suggest, in the light of Mazzucato, an expanded vision of innovation in education. This is articulated through the concept of value as collective creation and presented as capable of being oriented towards a sustainable way of life.

Keywords: Innovation. Education. Values. Sustainable way of life.