Entrepreneurs of Chaos? From Disruptive Innovation to Negentropic Entrepreneurship

Leuphana Research Initiative ‘Disruptive Condition’
Organizing Committee: Igor Galligo, with Elke Schüßler, Matthias Wenzel and Erich Hörl

This two-day symposium, comprising a day of lectures and a day of workshops, aims to draw up a radical critique of the ideology of disruption and impact, which is currently dominating the thinking and practices of technological innovation and entrepreneurship by drawing on the work of the French philosopher Bernard Stiegler, but also by going beyond it. 

Stiegler has argued that the current polycrisis situation can be understood as an increase of entropy in various forms: physical, biological, social, and psychological. Originally developed in the context of thermodynamics, the physical concept of entropy refers to the degradation of energy in a system to a non-usable state, implying a tendency towards disorganization and disorder. Life, however, strives towards negative entropy, i.e., the accumulation and maintenance of energy. Following this notion, Stiegler and others work with the notion of negentropy, a new word creation expressing the idea of negative entropy. Against this background, this symposium aims to bring together entrepreneurship and innovation scholars with contemporary philosophy to, first, develop a critique of the concepts of disruption and impact in the context of (technological) innovation and entrepreneurship and, second, develop an alternative model of technological innovation and entrepreneurship that considers economic, social, cultural, and ecological balances. 

Thus, we wish to discuss and develop a negentropic conception of entrepreneurship that is contributory to social and ecological well-being, foregrounding construction, creation and transformation rather than disruption, exploitation and degeneration as central features of contemporary entrepreneurship. Indian society will be the subject of particular attention as a paradigmatic case of the disruptive strategies pursued by Western multinational companies towards societies in the Global South. Thus, our conference will also attempt to link the issue of technological disruption to reflections on neo-colonialism and post-colonialism.

The conference program and further information can be found on the conference website: https://www.leuphana.de/en/portals/research-initiative-the-disruptive-condition/news/conferences/entrepreneurs-of-chaos-19-20052025.html.