ABSTRACT
The question of how technologies decline is surprisingly fairly novel. The dominant interest in historical, economic and sociological studies of technology has been to understand how novelty emerges and how innovation can open up new opportunities. However, during the last few decades, calls for more desirable alternatives (e.g., eco-innovation, responsible innovation) have been complemented by calls for deliberately discontinuing existing systems deemed undesirable. Phasing out coal and fossil fuels has, for instance, become an important priority for climate action. We observe that prominent techno-optimistic discourses are under pressure, and existing socio-technical systems, ranging from energy production to mobility to agri-food, are increasingly under critique. As a result, many questions come to the fore: Is it possible to do away with undesirable or unsustainable technologies? If so, how? Does this necessarily involve substitution or does it involve other shifts, too? What societal, political and industrial strategies may help to reduce our dependence to harmful technologies and socio-technical systems? Should specific products or larger systems be targeted? How can investment patterns related to harmful and polluting production be discontinued? We claim that exit or reduction objectives informed by critical discourses on technology are qualitatively different from fostering desirable innovation. It involves a different kind of phenomenon, requiring different skills, different interventions and different kinds of thinking: decline is not just the reverse of innovation.
