Wenn die Innovation zur Ideologie wird

In our innovative society, forms of innovation created by civilian actors are gaining in importance. By conducting a detailed analysis of the innovation practices of a civil innovation community in the field of electromobility, this study traces how innovation can become an ideology that guides innovative action. Electromobilists represent an exclusive community in the German-speaking world that has existed for about 30 years. Their innovation activities focus on the diffusion of the electric vehicle and on a new social mobility culture. At the same time, they ideologise electromobility itself and use this ideology to coordinate their innovation practice. By coupling climate change and new mobility technologies, they show the potential to trigger innovation practice among (parts of) civil society and thus also to increase people’s willingness to accept the introduction of new mobility technologies and practices.