Er Danmark innovativ – nok?

Abstract

This article examines the innovation agenda and national and international strategies for monitoring innovation. It unfolds the concept of ‘everyday innovation’ as a possible descrip- tion of activities in risk of being overlooked in current monitoring practices. Data from an ethnographic field study of innovation in elderly care illustrates the points. Finally, a model for everyday innovation is proposed. The model can be used both to take stock of current innovation in an organization and as strategical tool for nurturing practice-based innovation. There are good reasons to take a much more critical approach to the innovation imperative. However, in this article, I accept the innovation agenda and try to alter it in a slightly different direction. The premise is that the innovation concept offers something valuable to welfare domains (public and third sector). The purpose of the article is to dismantle an anxiety and growth rhetoric present in current monitoring practices and suggest an alternative.