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:
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
The Cultures of Innovation
culture
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
policy
orientation
market-oriented
expert-oriented
changeoriented
Changing Modes of
Knowledge Production
Industrial
“Little Science”
Mode 1
Before WWII
Military
“Big Science”
Mode 1½
1940s-1970s
Commercial
“Technoscience”
Mode 2
1980s-
Form of
Knowledge
disciplinary
multidisciplinary
transdisciplinary
Organizational form
individuals and
research groups
R&D departments
and institutes
ad hoc projects and
networks
Dominant
values
academic
bureaucratic
entrepreneurial
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
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
An Appropriate Technology
Movement in the 1970s
The New Alchemy Institute Ark
Tvindmøllen
1977-1978
Nordic Folkcenter for Renewable Energy
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”
The Age of Technoscience

A blurring of discursive boundaries


A trespassing of institutional borders


between science (episteme) and technology (techne)
between public and private, economic and academic
A mixing of skills and competencies

across disciplines and societal domains
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
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)
The Tendency to Hubris

transgressing established forms of quality control


transcending human limitations


”converging technologies” (bio, info, cogno, nano)
neglecting public participation and assessment


”a drift of epistemic criteria” (Elzinga)
lack of accountability and precaution
overemphasis on entrepreneurship

propagation of competition rather than cooperation
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
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)
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”
A Hybrid Imagination

At the macro, or discursive level


At the meso, or institutional level


connecting innovation cultures, integrating ideas
making spaces for collective creativity
At the micro, or personal level

combining identities and forms of competence
For example:
Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva and Carlo Petrini
at a Slow Food Cafe
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
For example:
Fritjof Capra
• physicist-turned-environmentalist
• author of many popular books
• founder of Center for Ecoliteracy
“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.”
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.
…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
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!