Conclusion

Many factors that affect the expansion of human capabilities seem to directly impact the functioning of innovation processes. Improving the structures of living together encourages the sharing of rules and institutions and ensures a social climate that is favourable to change. Greater social protection can enhance the sense of individual and collective safety and entice people to take risks and innovate, thus creating a more dynamic economy. Equality therefore, plays a crucial role in the link between human development and innovation. A more inclusive society may intensify and improve learning by using, by interacting and by doing, which are at the heart of innovation. On the contrary, exclusion and excessive disparities in the freedoms of individuals result in the formation of closed systems consisting of privileged groups who hesitate to support social and economic change. Excessive inequality also affects the functioning of institutions and can facilitate their ‘capture’ by interest groups with greater economic power. These may adversely affect the use of public resources for research and innovation drawing them away from collective goals.