1. Cultural Aspects of Innovation, including ”grass-roots” innovations
NACI Workshop on Broad-based Innovations,
Pretoria, South Africa, Feb 27, 2009
Cultural Aspects of Innovation, including ”grass-roots” innovations
Andrew Jamison
Aalborg University
Based on:

2. By way of introduction...
A good technology, firmly related to human needs, cannot be one that has a maximum productivity as its supreme goal: it must rather, as in an organic system, seek to provide the right quantity of the right quality at the right time and the right place for the right purpose.
Lewis Mumford, 1961

3. The Cultures of Innovation
economic,
commercial
bureaucratic, professional
civic,
”grass-roots”
relevant contexts
companies,
business networks,
markets
governments,
nation-states,
societies
movements,
communities,
regions
policy
aims
entrepreneurship,
competitiveness
construction, coordination
appropriation,cooperation
orientation
market-oriented
expert-oriented
change-oriented

4. Changing Modes of Knowledge Production
Industrial Military Commercial
“Little Science” “Big Science” “Technoscience”
Mode Mode 1½ Mode 2
Before WWII 1940s-1970s s-
Form of
Knowledge disciplinary multidisciplinary transdisciplinary
Organiza individuals and R&D departments ad hoc projects and
tional form research groups and institutes networks
Dominant
values academic bureaucratic entrepreneurial

5. From Little Science to Big Science
change in size and scale
mission orientation, external control
university-government collaboration
bureaucratic norm, or value system
new role for the state: ”science policy”
appropriate technology/technology assessment

6. Critiques of Big Science in the 1960s
moral, or spiritual (e.g. Martin Luther King)
against injustice,”poverty of the spirit”
for a new morality
scientific, or ecological (e.g. Rachel Carson)
against reductionism, ”the abuse of the planet”
for an environmental science
humanist, or cultural (e.g. Lewis Mumford)
against hubris, ”the myth of the machine”
for an appropriate technology

7. An Appropriate Technology Movement in the 1970s
The New Alchemy Institute Ark
Tvindmøllen
Nordic Folkcenter for Renewable Energy

8. From Big Science to Technoscience
change in range and scope
market orientation, corporate control
university-industry collaboration
entrepreneurial norm, or value system
the state as strategist: innovation policy
from assessment to promotion: ”foresight”

9. The Age of Technoscience
A blurring of discursive boundaries
between science (episteme) and technology (techne)
A trespassing of institutional borders
between public and private, economic and academic
A mixing of skills and competencies
across disciplines and societal domains

10. Contending Policy Strategies
The dominant , or hegemonic strategy (mode 2):
commercialization, entrepreneurship, transdisciplinarity
The residual, or traditionalist strategy (mode 1):
academicization, expertise, (multi)disciplinarity
An emerging, or sustainable strategy (mode 3):
appropriation, empowerment, interdisciplinarity

11. Transdisciplinarity, or ”mode 2”
”Knowledge which emerges from a particular context of application with its own distinct theoretical structures, research methods and modes of practice but which may not be locatable on the prevailing disciplinary map.”
Michael Gibbons et al, The New Production of Knowledge (1994)

12. The Tendency to Hubris
transgressing established forms of quality control
”a drift of epistemic criteria” (Elzinga)
transcending human limitations
”converging technologies” (bio, info, cogno, nano)
neglecting public participation and assessment
lack of accountability and precaution
overemphasis on entrepreneurship
propagation of competition rather than cooperation

13. The Forces of Habit(us)
Technoscience primarily seen as providing new opportunities for scientists and engineers
Taught by restructuring established scientific and engineering fields: multi- or ”subdisciplinarity”
Politics and the rest of society left largely outside of research and education: ”outsourcing” of ethics
A continuing belief in separating experts and their knowledge from contexts of use

14. The Discipline as Habit(us)
“A discipline is defined by possession of a collective capital of specialized methods and concepts, mastery of which is the tacit or implicit price of entry to the field. It produces a ‘historical transcendental,’ the disciplinary habitus, a system of schemes of perception and appreciation (where the incorporated discipline acts as a censorship).”
Pierre Bourdieu, Science of Science and Reflexivity (2004)

15. The Need for a ”Mode 3” At the discursive, or macro level
Sustainable innovation, connecting technological solutions to social and environmental problems
At the institutional, or meso level
Responsible innovation, creating accountability procedures for science and engineering
At the personal, or micro level
Community-oriented innovation, fostering innovation processes at the ”grass-roots”

16. A Hybrid Imagination At the macro, or discursive level
connecting innovation cultures, integrating ideas
At the meso, or institutional level
making spaces for collective creativity
At the micro, or personal level
combining identities and forms of competence

17. For example: Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva and Carlo Petrini
at a Slow Food Cafe

18. Vandana Shiva on GMOs
The conflict over genetically engineered crops and foods is not a conflict between ”culture” and ”science”. It is between two cultures of science: one based on transparency, public accountability, and responsibility toward the environment and people and another based on profits and the lack of transparency, accountability, and responsibility.
Stolen Harvest, 2000

19. For example: Fritjof Capra physicist-turned-environmentalist
author of many popular books
founder of Center for Ecoliteracy

20. “Since the outstanding characteristic of the biosphere is its inherent ability to sustain life, a sustainable human community must be designed in such a manner that its technologies and social institutions honor, support, and cooperate with nature's inherent ability to sustain life.”

21. For example:
The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) is a public interest research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi. CSE researches into, lobbies for and communicates the urgency of development that is both sustainable and equitable.
Anil Agarwal, the founder of CSE, shown at work with one of the six State of India’s Environment reports that the centre has put out since the 1980s.

22. …and, not to forget, the new president!
Raising money through the Internet
Mixing old and new forms of communication
Applying techniques of social networking
Connecting people and cultures virtually
In short, making appropriate use of technology

23. In conclusion... To counteract the dominance of the commercial
culture, we need policies that explicitly support:
the civic, ”not-for-profit” culture of innovation,
interdisciplinary educational programs,
mixing expertise and social responsibility,
creating sites for collective learning,
in short, fostering a hybrid imagination!