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The anthropology of innovation is a strategic approach that shows that actors act under constraint, either to trigger change or, conversely, to slow it down. The empirical observation, linked to the realization of numerous qualitative field surveys, is that there is no change, and therefore no innovation, without the existence of constraints prior to the interplay of actors. The lockdown linked to COVID-19 is an exceptional example of this, since it has blocked almost all population mobility in a very large number of countries. The containment constraint makes it possible to understand what emerges, what is maintained or what disappears. It is an “upstream” constraint that corresponds to what is also called the forces that govern us, whether these forces are the “invisible hand of the market”, God, multinational corporations, fate, the fatum of the Romans or the ananké (Ἀνάγκη) of the Greeks, predestination, determinism, nature, the Shì 势, the course of events in Chinese thought, or habitus in the social sciences.

At the same time, once the innovation process has been triggered, it appears that the actors are confronted with a whole series of material, social and symbolic constraints that make it possible to understand the human dimension of the diffusion of an innovation. We can identify 11 of these, but of course there may be fewer or more. The important thing to remember is that these constraints rationally explain why some actors favor, prevent or allow change to take place.

Let us take the very general question of frugal consumption. If we try to get French consumers to buy French products, which is a new practice from the consumers’ point of view, and that these products are more expensive than Spanish or Dutch products, depending on the season, we understand that the constraint of purchasing power limits French purchases. The constraint explains the discrepancy between the positive or negative representations associated with innovation and actual practices.

This means that there is not only an economic, technical or scientific rationality, but that there exists visible or subterranean social logic. Anthropology seeks to understand the logic of what appears irrational to an economist, a doctor or an engineer. These are the forces that organize the interplay of actors throughout the process of production of innovation up until its reception. To understand constraints is to understand the underground rationalities, the social logic that explain the unfolding of innovation processes.

The first five constraints that “delay” innovation processes are material: the time constraint, the space constraint, the budget or the purchasing power constraint. A more anthropological constraint is that of the system of concrete objects that will or will not allow the use of the invention. The last material constraint is that of available human energy. This is particularly important in innovations that affect the domestic space and thus the traditional division of tasks between men and women.

The three social constraints relate to learning, for example, the learning of a new digital technology, which, if it is too complex, will slow down its adoption; the importance of pre-digital or digital social networks that will play the role of prescriber or opponent of innovation; and the nature of group norms that often implicitly define what is prescribed, allowed or forbidden socially. The three symbolic and psychosocial constraints relate to mental load, i.e. the stress that can result from the adoption of an innovation; personal or professional identity, depending on whether or not it is questioned by the innovation; and perceived risks in relation to the novelty, whether it is a danger or a security measure.

The anthropology of innovation allows us to show that a technology does not exist in itself, but that it is the result of a whole process of social construction in terms of its emergence. External constraints play a triggering role in this process, and this can be found throughout its diffusion, with constraints acting as filters either in favor or against this novelty.