There is a growing body of literature on responsible innovation (RI). RI is prominent in debates and policies regarding the governance of research and innovation, particularly in the EU and USA. The paper brings together sociologically-informed institutional analysis and critical discourse analysis into a discourse-institutional perspective, which is applied to review the emergence of and scholarly contributions to literature on RI. It generates insights into the role of language use in the institutionalisation of RI from detailed analysis of a foundational text. The paper identifies evidence for the institutionalisation of RI, how this has been accomplished and by whom. The paper considers opportunities for and limitations of RI research and policy in connection with its potential to foster effective anticipatory governance of science and innovation while facilitating inclusive deliberation in society. The conclusion suggests that RI is a developing area of research and practice in which there are dominant perspectives, practices and actors, which combine to inhibit the building of a truly responsive, inclusive and reflexive approach to governing innovation.

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Permaculture is a growing but little researched phenomenon emphasising care for the environment, equity, fair treatment of people and working with—and not against—nature. It thus represents a potential alternative to business as usual, capable of addressing fundamental challenges posed by human‐made climate change. The paper examines a previously ignored site of entrepreneurship by taking a practice perspective, exploring connections between the practice and growth of permaculture and institutional entrepreneurship. It assesses practice‐related and institutional factors affecting the start‐up and operation of permaculture enterprises in the United Kingdom. The study maps and surveys UK Permaculture Association members who have started up their own business and reports on qualitative data from personal interviews with twenty of them. Data analysis employs NVivo software and involves thematic analysis pertaining to the practice, institutional biographies and institutional portfolios of permaculture entrepreneurs. The findings show the importance of permaculture activists' institutional biographies and institutional portfolios to the start‐up and operation of permaculture enterprises and for shaping permaculture‐related practice. The contribution of the paper lies in how it balances attention to individual agency with subfield‐specific, organisational field and macrosocial factors in understanding ‘beyond profit’ entrepreneurship.

Community renewable energy promises to play an important role in reducing the generation and consumption of high carbon sources of power, as well as in demonstrating the viability of novel business models within a transformed energy system built on principles of locality and democracy. The paper argues, however, that community renewable energy, in England at least, remains marginal, undermined by changing government policies and underplayed institutional factors connected with technology and organisational legitimacy. The paper reports on interviews with 29 actors connected with community renewable energy in England. The analysis identifies themes implicating various types of legitimacy with the partial and uneven institutionalisation of community renewable energy. These are bound up with continuing and new institutional rules and the deployment of strategies for (de)legitimising community renewable energy, including associated technologies and organisational forms, adversely impacting on the potential contribution of community renewable energy to energy system transformation.