The Politics Of Knowledge In Inclusive Development And Innovation

This book develops an integrated perspective on the practices and politics of making knowledge work in inclusive development and innovation. While debates about development and innovation commonly appeal to the authority of academic researchers, many current approaches emphasise the plurality of actors with relevant expertise for addressing livelihood challenges. Adopting an action-oriented and reflexive approach, this volume explores the variety of ways in which knowledge works, paying particular attention to dilemmas and controversies. The six parts of the book address the complex interplay of knowledge and politics, starting with the need for knowledge integration in the first part and decolonial perspectives on the politics of knowledge integration in the second part. The following three parts focus on the practices of inclusive development and innovation through three major themes of learning for transformative change, evidence, and digitisation. The final part of the book addresses the governance of knowledge and innovation in the light of political struggles about inclusivity. Exploring conceptual and practical themes through case studies from the Global North and South, this book will be of great interest to students, scholars, and practitioners researching and working in development studies, epistemology, innovation studies, science and technology studies, and sustainability studies more broadly.

Innovation has the potential to address a number of development challenges such as combating poverty and delivering health services, but all too often technological progress has failed to consider the needs of the poor, and has actually served to increase inequalities, rather than sharing out the benefits of new technologies and economic growth. Inclusive Innovation for Development outlines a theory of justice in innovation, arguing that principles of equity, recognition and participation can guide the direction of contemporary innovation systems towards equalising social relations in the production of knowledge and innovation, and meeting the basic needs of the poor. The book first explores why inclusivity in innovation matters, and how the justice framework can be used to support inclusive innovation. The book then goes on to outline a ‘needs-based’ approach to innovation and development and explains how its principles can be generated through public action. Finally, it asks how we can effectively evaluate inclusive innovation. Drawing on cases from Africa, Latin America and South Asia, this book theorises innovation and justice in political terms, arguing that inclusive innovation is not just a practical necessity but a moral obligation. This book's novel approach to innovation for development will be useful for upper-level students and scholars of development studies, politics, and innovation studies, as well as to local, national and international policy-makers and practitioners dealing with international development and inclusive innovation policies and programmes.

The essays in this book examine the role of education and the university in economic development. It is the contention of the contributors that knowledge—ideas and skilled and educated people—are increasingly important for economic development. How to promote inclusive development—the process of development that includes every citizen in any country—has become a wide-ranging puzzle. After framing the problems associated with globally integrated learning processes from the perspective of science and technology policies, the essayists look at the role of the university in the knowledge economy drawing examples from the United States, Japan, and Portugal. They then review the role of innovation in the industrial policies of a variety of countries, look at systems of knowledge creation and diffusion, and conclude with commentary on the roles of public planning and policy in the achievement of sustainable development. This wide-ranging examination of knowledge and development issues will be of value to scholars, researchers, and policy makers involved with economic growth and development.

Innovation, often tempered by the language of inclusion, has become an indispensable element of contemporary development policy and practice in the so-called Global South. Driven by multinational companies, public–private partnerships and social enterprises, “innovation for development” aims to co-produce social goods (things of value) such as poverty alleviation with associated profit through innovative market-led solutions, opening up untapped and unserved markets in the developing world and exploiting the potential “fortune at the bottom of the pyramid”. But innovation for development is a contested notion with the capacity to shelter multiple political agendas. By reviewing existing academic theory and discussing four in-depth case studies from Bangladesh and India, this book interrogates how innovation for development is being framed, its politics and the impacts it is having on rural communities on the ground. The analysis suggests both an emerging hegemony constructed around a neoliberal, market-led agenda and the existence of countervailing voices that question this framing, sometimes radically so.

This collection brings together internationally-renowned experts to offer a comprehensive review of how politics shapes inclusive development in the global south. Each aspect of development is covered: social, economic, environmental and cultural, with each substantive chapter offering a systematic review of the evidence in the relevant field.

This book analyzes the current trends in the production, dissemination, and use of knowledge which contribute to social inequalities, especially in the Global South. The aim of the text is to explore the possibilities of active involvement by universities in the democratization of knowledge - a process by which people will be able to more easily acquire and utilize knowledge, as well as the results and benefits of research and development. Combining higher education, research, and knowledge utilization is what universities should be doing. When they efficiently contribute to overcoming inequality and underdevelopment, they may be considered developmental universities. They should not function in solitude with privileged elites alone, but in the context of "inclusive innovation systems."

This unique book brings together new perspectives on inclusive development and the kinds of science, technology and innovation that can foster this form of development.

This book examines the ways in which universities can play a crucial role in inclusive development, social innovation and social entrepreneurship. It aims to prove the importance of inclusive development and inclusive innovation on economic growth and demonstrate the ways in which universities can be pioneers in this area through initiatives in social responsibility and social innovation. For example, providing access to a university education without discrimination of race, gender, income status, or other factors would help to diminish the increasing income differentials currently being experienced in many countries, especially in the developing world. The research and studies included in this book provide insight into possible actions that can be taken by universities and public and private shareholders in inclusive development, social innovation, social entrepreneurship and overall regional economic and social development. Innovation is currently considered to be the most important and dynamic factor explaining growth and development. At the same time, the traditional view considering innovation as having to be commercialized at any price is being challenged. Lately, there has been growing interest in innovation in the public sector, particularly with respect to social innovations designed to reduce income inequality. To address these concepts, constant exchange of ideas and information between research groups became necessary. UniDev (Universities in Development – the Evolving Role of Academic Institutions in Innovation Systems and Development) is an international research group with researchers in twelve countries interested in the role of universities in development. This book features the results of research performed by eleven research groups from UniDev country communities, presenting in-depth and comparative case studies from universities around the world, including Latin America, Northern and Eastern Europe, and sub-Saharan Africa. This title will be of interest to students, academics, researchers, and policy makers interested in the role of universities in development, social innovation and social entrepreneurship.