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Historians will remind us that innovation has not always been placed on a pedestal in this way. Prior to the 19th century, it was even equated with a much-maligned form of transgression, a challenge to the established order and to religious and political balances (Godin 2017). Supposedly exceptional, emanating from the sacred and the divine, conceptualizing was shunned. To be innovative was indeed to be a troublemaker, even a heretic (Godin 2012).

It was only in the 19th century that innovation began to take on a positive connotation, in contrast with conservatism, customs and tradition. This meaning of the term is still very structuring in the way we think about innovation today. It has come to resemble a dogma that has replaced the myth of progress, which has been more and more seriously undermined over the course of the 20th century (Taguieff 2001) and in particular in the 1980s and 1990s (Lechevalier and Laugier 2019). It is associated with originality, difference and creativity, and tends to be seen as a source of “magical” solutions to all sorts of social problems (Oki 2019). Thus, innovating has become a socio-political injunction designed to free us from the economic crisis, thanks to the supposed capacity of innovation to create value and employment. “Innovation has become the emblem of modern society, a panacea for solving all problems,” summarizes Godin (2008, p. 5).