CREATIVE DESTRUCTION
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 747 ▶ |
| Object type | Discipline oriented, General information, Methodology or model |
A process of destruction of existing structures that opens the possibility for fundamental change .
This expression comes from economics and was introduced by the Austrian economist Joseph SCHUMPETER (1883-1950). According to Schumpeter, periodic waves of scientific discoveries and subsequent technical innovations trigger deep (and frequently traumatic) changes in economies and societies. Older trades and structures are destroyed and progressively replaced by new and very different ones. An example has been the destruction of older modes of transportation after the invention of the internal combustion engine (allowing the massive use of fossil energy of oil) and the deep transformation of economy, urban life and generally societies that resulted.
Moreover creative destruction appears to be a still more general process . Edgar Morin observes for example that all great religions of the world were predicated by one singular and exceptional individual (Moises, Jesus, Siddharta, Mahoma, Luther). All of them triggered radical social and religious destructuration and restructuration (1999, p. 79)
In fact creative destruction is a universal systemic evolutive process (from cosmology to biology, to business and to culture) whose significance seems to remain yet insufficiently explored, understood and managed (if possible!)