Theo Papaioannou - Inclusive Innovation for Development

First published 2018

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2018 Theo Papaioannou

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ISBN: 978-1-138-30486-4 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-203-72972-4 (ebk)

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This small book has been motivated by two well-documented facts of the early 21st century. The first refers to increasing interaction between new technologies and socio-economic inequality across the world. The second refers to emerging models of innovation in developing countries which offer alternatives to social exclusion. It is the lack of theorising of both of these facts, together with what I view as an unsatisfactory engagement with alternative perspectives of new knowledge development, that has prompted me to work on a predominantly political argument of inclusive innovation for development. My aim in the following chapters is to outline this argument and to clarify a set of normative principles which can guide innovation towards meeting the demands of justice.

As is often the case with research endeavours, this book has benefited from numerous interactions with scholars of innovation and development studies and politics as well as with good friends. I must begin with my colleagues at the Open University (OU), in particular David Wield, Jo Chataway, Norman Clark, Raphie Kaplinsky, Les Levidow, Giles Mohan, Hazel Johnson, Dinar Kale and Maureen Mackintosh all of whom, one way or another, have contributed key ideas and critical arguments to my thinking on inclusive innovation and development. The same holds for my good friends, social theorists Giota Alevizou of the OU and Alex Koutsogiannis of the University of Crete. I owe to them my reflections on new digital technologies and the role of the political state in innovation and development. In addition, it was a pleasure to learn from Smita Srinivass brilliant work Market Menagerie: Health and Development in Late Industrial States (2012). During her generous visits to the OU Innovation, Knowledge and Development (IKD) research centre, I took the opportunity to discuss with her normative and empirical arguments around planning more inclusive innovation systems for development. I am also indebted to Judith Sutz and the late Calestous Juma for discussions in the area of innovation and justice. Conferences such as the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) 50th Anniversary Conference at the University of Sussex in September 2016 helped me clarify my theoretical perspective of emerging models of innovation and development enormously. My wife, Barbara, and our son, Dimitri Alexander, were both supportive of my writing another book (provided it would be relatively small!). I am grateful to Barbara for bearing with my moments of withdrawal and intellectual absorption both in London, UK and South Pelion, Greece.