Silicon Valley Consensus

The term ‘Silicon Valley Consensus’ is a pervasive view about the ecosystem of ideas of innovation, creativity and disruption – originating from the Silicon Valley experience – and their implications for the future of work. ¹ We live in an era where the ‘mantra’ of innovation, entrepreneurship, creativity and disruption is all around us. It drives a lot of business activity but also government thinking and policy, with immense political and social implications. But to what extent can we say that it might be responsible for and can explain some of the politics of the day, particularly in America and the rise of populism? Maybe, this reflects those who feel in the American labour market and in communities that they’ve been ‘left behind’ in all this with growing levels of inequality, lack of jobs and destroyed communities. And what’s the way forward from this ‘world view’ of innovation and creativity and disruption? How do we find a path of ‘structural adjustment’ that’s fair to everyone and spreads the benefits as well as the costs, and to what extent does this involve having to engage with the ideas behind the Silicon Valley consensus of a technical, technological digital revolution? ^{2 , 3 , 4 , 5}