Globelics Academy 2015Tampere, Finland

Knowledge, innovation and inclusive development

Judith SutzUniversidad de la República

Innovation is being shaken by conceptual hurricanes and institutionals winds

(Relatively) new conceptsUser-driven innovations Public-sector driven innovationSocial-related innovationpro-por innovation grass-root innovation frugal innovation co-producción of knowledge (Ostrom)

New concepts incorporated to old and

new institutionsThe OECD and inclusive innovationThe World Bank and pro-poor innovationThe EU and socially oriented innovationThe Nordic Frugal Innovation Society (TNFIS)The Honey-Bee Network

Why is this so? Perhaps because “smart growth” has proven to be socially uneven

Poverty continues to be a huge world problem, but…

“If our paramount interest is in the lives that people canlead –the freedom they have to lead minimally decentlives- (…) we must look at impoverished lives,and not just at depleted wallets.” (Sen, 2000)

This implies that the eventual trickle-down effect ofeconomic growth is not enough (and so STI for such growth

is not enough either). Other dimensions must be taken into account. Inequality is paramount among them.

Inequality is growing all over the world

In the 1990s (IDB, 1998)

REGIONS Income perceived by the richer 5% (as a % of the total income)

Income perceived by the poorer 30%(as a % of the total income)

Difference PBI per capita (U$S dollars)

Africa 24 10 14 =~ 500

South East Asia

16 13 3 =~ 10.500

Rest of Asia 18 12 6 =~ 2.500

Latin America 25 6 19 =~ 4.500

Industrialized countries

13 13 0 =~ 14.500

Present times

Source: Piketty, 2014: 231

Source: Piketty, 2014: 233.

Does knowledge and innovation relate to impoverished lives and to

inequality?

A knowledge based inequality prevails in contemporary world (Tilly, 2005)

First Framework: a taxonomy of exclusions (Sen, 2000)

Constitutive exclusion: a deprivation of intrinsic importance on its own.

Instrumental exclusion: may not be impoverishing in itself, but can lead to impoverishment of human life through consequences of great instrumental importance.

Active exclusion: comes about through policies directly aimed at that result.

Passive exclusion: comes about through policies that have not been devised to bring about that result.

Sen’s exclusion taxonomy in matrix form with examples related to innovation

Constitutive and ActiveTRIPS agreements affecting access to generic drugs

Instrumental and ActiveUtilization of genetic data to exclude from jobs or from insurance

Constitutive and Passive The 90/10 gap The prohibitive costs of

some medical equipment

Instrumental and PassiveGaps or “divides” stemming from different rhythms of diffusion of innovations

POWER

POWER

Second Framework: highlighting the need for capacity to innovate in scarcity conditions

Solutions acquired through imports

Some problemssolved locally

Solutions do notfit developingcountries “borderconditions”

No solutions at all(neglected deseases)

Problemssolved in HICs

Problems not addressedor solved in HICs

Problems in the South with suitable solutions

Problems in the South without suitable solutions

Examples of successful innovations in “scarcity conditions”

Lamp of blue lightto treat newbornjaundice

First synthetic vacccineto treat Haemophilus influenzae type b

Solar light throughplastic bottles

The “Rolls-Royce” of human milk pasteurizers

What may happen when social policies are implemented looking mainly to the first cell

(solutions through imports)?

Trade deficit in the Brazilian health sector

Third Framework: enhancing the “collective power” of knowledge and lowering its

“distributive power” (Michael Mann) i) Distributive power: mastery exercised over other

peopleii) Collective power: cooperation to enhance joint power

over third parties or over nature Knowledge as power is both distributive andcollective In the “capitalist knowledge society” the distributivepower of knowledge overpowers its collective power Democratizing knowledge implies enhancing itscollective power Democratizing knowledge is crucial to advance

towards innovation for an inclusive development

Fighting social exclusion through innovation needs at least the following:

To identify the possible links between a given type of exclusion and innovation: setting the problem

To develop a strategy to address the identified problem: designing a specific innovation policy

To implement the policy: producing the innovation

To embed the innovation in social life

A circuit depicting the process of innovation for social inclusion

Alzugaray et al,2011

Two specific challenges

The agency challenge Who can identify the

problems of social inclusion that need research and innovation in order to be solved?

How can voice be given to those who need the solutions that research and innovation can provide?

The agenda challenge What interests shape the

agendas of research, knowledge production and innovation?

How can these agendas be “persuaded” to include concrete concerns about social inclusion?

Social policies may fulfill the agency challenge if…

Innovation policies may fulfillthe agenda challenge if…

Social policies “as” innovation policies; innovation policies “as” social policies

Final remarks Enhancing the collective power of knowledge by

democratizing it is crucial for: empowering innovation performed in informal settings better articulating these innovation with diverse formal

circuits widening the scope of academic research agendas widening as well the scope of public policies

(productive, STI and social) For that, Inclusive Systems of Innovation are needed.

Building them is a great challenge ahead. Here, the Globelics community –to which you belong

now- comes in. Let’s share the happiness of such pursuit (Hirschman)