The Innovation Imperative: Survival, Adaptation, and Conflict in the Post-Consensus World

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue centers on "The Innovation Imperative: Survival, Adaptation, and Conflict in the Post-Consensus World". It critically examines how innovation, particularly that driven by artificial intelligence (AI), algorithmic systems, and digital transformation, is being mobilized in response to the complex challenges of an increasingly fragmented global society. The focus lies on how innovation is not only a tool for progress, but a strategic necessity in contexts of socio-political disruption, institutional erosion, and epistemic uncertainty. The Special Issue invites interdisciplinary contributions from across the social sciences and humanities, including but not limited to media studies, communication, economics, sociology, political science, computer science, tourism, architecture, and environmental studies. We encourage submissions that explore innovation from diverse epistemological, cultural, and geopolitical perspectives. Contributions may focus on specific case studies, comparative analyses, theoretical frameworks, or systemic critiques, with relevance to local, regional, or global contexts.

Submissions must align with one of the journal’s paper types—original articles, conceptual papers, or reviews—and must engage directly with the theme of innovation in a post-consensus world.

The purpose of this Special Issue is threefold:

1. To interrogate the conditions under which innovation occurs in societies facing fragmentation, crisis, or institutional decline;
2. To assess the role of emerging technologies, particularly AI, in shaping the possibilities and limits of adaptation and survival;
3. To explore the societal conflicts and ethical dilemmas that innovation engenders, particularly in relation to power, trust, equity, and governance.

While substantial research exists on innovation, AI, and social change, much of it assumes the stability of consensus-based governance, shared epistemologies, and institutional cohesion. This Special Issue addresses a critical gap by focusing on innovation in the absence or collapse of consensus, a theme increasingly visible in global political fragmentation, media polarization, and public distrust in science and governance.

It builds upon and extends the following topics:

1. Work on innovation ecosystems and sociotechnical imaginaries, by situating them in unstable and contested environments;
2. The literature on AI ethics and governance, by examining how innovation is reconfigured under conflict and crisis;
3. Studies of resilience and adaptation, by introducing a political and epistemic dimension to the conversation;
4. Research on media and communication, by challenging assumptions about information integrity and consensus in digital publics.

This Special Issue thus provides a vital supplement to the existing scholarship by foregrounding how innovation becomes an imperative rather than a choice, when societies confront uncertainty, breakdown, and systemic disruption.

The studies are expected to address, though not be limited to, the following thematic areas:

• Algorithmic agendas: AI-driven news curation and the fragmentation of public discourse.
• Deepfakes, disinformation, and the collapse of epistemic trust.
• Digital resilience: communication infrastructure in conflict zones and fragile states.
• Innovation as social survival: adaptive practices in precarious urban communities.
• Post-consensus solidarities: reconfiguring social cohesion through digital commons.
• The algorithmic other: social identity and stratification in an AI-mediated society.
• Cognitive dissonance in the age of AI: navigating contradictory realities.
• Techno-anxiety and innovation fatigue: psychological impacts of rapid technological change.
• Digital trauma and the politics of memory: AI in post-conflict psychological recovery.
• Crisis capitalism rebooted: innovation, inequality, and AI-led economic realignments.
• Platform economies in post-consensus societies: innovation or exploitation?
• Algorithmic credit scoring and economic inclusion in unstable governance contexts.
• Designing for collapse: adaptive urbanism in the age of permanent crisis.
• Smart cities without consensus: algorithmic planning in contested urban spaces.
• Shelter as strategy: emergency architecture and the ethics of innovation in displacement contexts. 

Contributions should be in the form of one of the three categories of papers (article, conceptual paper, or review) accepable to the journal and should address the topic of the Special Issue.

Dr. Abdulgaffar Arikewuyo
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as conceptual papers are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Societies is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• innovation
• artificial intelligence (AI)
• post-consensus society
• adaptation
• crisis and conflict
• media and communication
• digital transformation
• social resilience
• algorithmic governance
• interdisciplinary futures