Social technology network: paths for sustainability

Miranda, Isabel; Lopez, Michelle A.; Soares, Maria Clara Couto

doi:10.1080/2157930x.2011.556470

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…'social technology'). In the latter, scaling up is not conceived as product replication but as the reapplication (Miranda, Lopez, and Couto Soares 2011) in adequacy to different socio-technical contexts. Within this first standpoint, scaling up processes have usually arisen from the demand of political (national or international) actors to increase the reach of assistance programmes or from the movement's need to gain further influence to pursue their goals (Dias 2013;.…”

Section: Scaling Up and Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Biotechnologies for inclusive development: scaling up, knowledge intensity and empowerment (the case of the probiotic yoghurt ‘Yogurito’ in Argentina)

Bortz

Thomas

2017

Innovation and Development

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This paper analyses how technological and institutional innovation strategies were deployed towards achieving a high-scale, sustainable, knowledge intensive, locally grounded project, through the experience of an Argentinean biotechnology-based nutritional supplement delivered in schools to solve child malnutrition led diseases. The paper focuses on how the case of 'Yogurito' managed to address three challenges within recent Innovation for Inclusive Development literature: (1) involving heterogeneous actors in the innovation process within knowledge intensive technologies, (2) gaining scale while fostering participatory technology development processes, and (3) promoting the articulation of science, technology and innovation (STI) programmes with wider (social, sanitary and productive) policies. Through the trajectory of the probiotic yoghurt, the article examines learning and innovation strategies in technological design and institutional arrangements. We argue that the organizational strategies deployed to articulate scientific and locally grounded capacities were key elements that allowed the programme's working, its sustainability over time, and the unfolding of a regional development policy scheme.

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Section: Scaling Up and Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Biotechnologies for inclusive development: scaling up, knowledge intensity and empowerment (the case of the probiotic yoghurt ‘Yogurito’ in Argentina)

Bortz

Thomas

2017

Innovation and Development

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“…The cultures, institutions, economies, politics and possibilities for grassroots innovation vary enormously. And yet, a look into the activities of the Honey Bee Network and People's Science Movement in India, for example, or movements for social technologies in Latin America, or grassroots innovation in South East Asia or Africa, suggest similar challenges to those above but playing out in very different circumstances (Gupta et al 2003;Abrol 2011;Dagnino 2009;Miranda et al 2011;). …”

Section: Looking and Linking Beyond The Special Sectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grassroots innovations in community energy: The role of intermediaries in niche development

Hargreaves

Hielscher

Seyfang

et al. 2013

Global Environmental Change

525

369

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More details/abstract: Community energy projects are attracting increasing attention as potential sources of innovation to support sustainable energy transitions. Research into 'grassroots innovations' like community energy often recognises the difficulties they face in simply surviving let alone in growing or seeding wider change. Strategic niche management theory is potentially helpful here as it highlights the important roles played by 'intermediary actors' in consolidating, growing and diffusing novel innovations. This paper presents the first in-depth analysis of intermediary work in the UK community energy sector. New empirical evidence was gathered through interviews with 15 community energy intermediaries and a content analysis of 113 intermediary-produced case studies about community energy projects. Analysis finds intermediaries adopting a variety of methods to try and diffuse generic lessons about context-specific projects, but that trying to coordinate support for local projects that exist amidst very different social and political circumstances is challenging. This is exacerbated by the challenges of building a coherent institutional infrastructure for a sector where aims and approaches diverge, and where underlying resources are uncertain and inconsistent. Applications of relatively simple, growth-oriented approaches like strategic niche management to grassroots innovations need to be reformulated to better recognise their diverse and conflicted realities on the ground.

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“…Along these lines, not only are "the poor" rediscovered as able to eco-innovate, but are also seen as a potential reservoir of scalable and affordable solutions to pressing environmental problems. As a consequence, public institutions are now following with attention grassroots initiatives, and on rare occasions encouraging them with financial support like for Brazil and Argentina [92]. Recently, eco-friendly grassroots innovations for social inclusion are also on the agendas of international donors such as the World Bank [93] and the OECD [94].…”

Section: The Research Agenda Emerging From the Bop: Who Innovates Formentioning

confidence: 99%

Crafting Sustainable Development Solutions: Frugal Innovations of Grassroots Entrepreneurs

2016

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Abstract:A shift in the entrepreneurial landscape is taking place brought about by grassroots innovators with little formal education and technological knowhow, living and working in penurious environments. This research represents an emerging third wave of literature on Bottom of the Pyramid innovation, where products are offered for and by the underserved. Using primary and secondary data derived from four cases of grassroots entrepreneurs in the Indian Subcontinent, the study explores the phenomenon where resource scarce entrepreneurs craft solutions that are environmental friendly, with low overall ownership costs, and use locally available material. We argue that the grassroots phenomenon can be fruitfully exploited to achieve the new Sustainable Development Goals proposed by the UN as a post-2015 strategy for the future of global governance. These innovations might have a tremendous impact not only in terms of serving unmet and ignored consumer needs, but also longer term impacts through enhanced productivity, sustainability, poverty reduction and inclusion promotion.

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Social technology network: paths for sustainability

Cited by 12 publications

References 0 publications

Biotechnologies for inclusive development: scaling up, knowledge intensity and empowerment (the case of the probiotic yoghurt ‘Yogurito’ in Argentina)

Biotechnologies for inclusive development: scaling up, knowledge intensity and empowerment (the case of the probiotic yoghurt ‘Yogurito’ in Argentina)

Grassroots innovations in community energy: The role of intermediaries in niche development

Crafting Sustainable Development Solutions: Frugal Innovations of Grassroots Entrepreneurs

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