Adrian Ely

When grassroots innovation movements encounter mainstream institutions: implications for models of inclusive innovation

Grassroots innovation movements (GIMs) can be regarded as initiators or advocates of alternative pathways of innovation. Sometimes these movements engage with more established science, technology and innovation (STI) institutions and development agencies in pursuit of their goals. In this paper, we argue that an important aspect to encounters between GIMs and mainstream STI institutions is the negotiation of different framings of grassroots innovation and development of policy models for inclusive innovation. These encounters can result in two different modes of engagement by GIMs; what we call insertion and mobilization. We illustrate and discuss these interrelated notions of framings and modes of engagement by drawing on three case studies of GIMs: the Social Technologies Network in Brazil, and the Honey Bee Network and Peoples Science Movements in India. The cases highlight that inclusion in the context of GIMs is not an unproblematic, smooth endeavour, and involves diverse interpretations and framings, which shape what and who gets included or excluded. Within the context of increasing policy interest, the analysis of encounters between GIMs and STI institutions can offer important lessons for the design of models of inclusive innovation and development.

Innovation politics post-Rio+20: : hybrid pathways to sustainability?

The ability of innovation—both technical and social—to stretch and redefine ‘limits to growth’ was recognised at Stockholm in 1972, and has been a key feature in debates through to Rio+20 in 2012. Compared with previous major moments of global reflection about human and planetary futures—Stockholm, Rio in 1992, Johannesburg in 2002—we now have a better understanding of how innovation interacts with social, technological, and ecological systems to contribute to transitions at multiple levels. What can this improved understanding offer in terms of governance approaches that might enhance the interaction between local initiatives and global sustainability objectives post-Rio+20? The global political agenda over the last two decades has largely focused on creating economic and regulatory incentives to drive more sustainable industrial development patterns within and between nation-states—resulting most notably in the Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. At the other end of the spectrum, ‘Local Agenda 21’, launched at the first Rio summit, envisaged a community-led response to sustainable development challenges locally. This paper discusses the successes and challenges of globally linked local action through a number of illustrative examples, reflecting on how these have contributed to Rio 1992s original objectives. In doing so, we will draw upon innovation studies and development studies to highlight three key issues in a hybrid politics of innovation for sustainability that links global and local: first, the direction in which innovation and development proceed; second, the distribution of the costs, benefits, and risks associated with such changes; third, the diversity of approaches and forms of innovation that contribute to global transitions to sustainability. Drawing on this analysis, we will also reflect on Rio+20, including the extent to which hybrid innovation politics is already emerging, whether this was reflected in the formal Rio+20 outcomes, and what this suggests for the future of international sustainable development summits.

The Need for Change

The governance of food safety presents a formidable series of challenges , both in general and, more specifically, within the context of the European Union. 1 The purpose of this chapter is to outline and explore some of these challenges, bringing into focus the conceptual ideas upon which we may build in order to address them. The existing conditions that necessitate change in food safety governance arrangements within the EU will be discussed and related to potential procedural and institutional responses. As such, this chapter introduces and defines the terms used to describe the various stages in the governance process, as well as some of the specific problems encountered during each of these activities. These concepts will be further expanded upon in subsequent chapters describing a general framework for food safety governance within the European Union that can address the challenges discussed here.

Framing a global health risk from the bottom-up: User perceptions and practices around antibiotics in four villages in China

This paper describes an exploratory study that investigated perceptions and practices around antibiotic use amongst villagers in four villages in Hubei and Shandong, China, as part of a larger multi-level project investigating framings of technology risk and regulation from local to global levels. Adopting a ‘backward-mapping’ methodology, focus group discussions and in depth interviews were carried out during a field visit in the summer of 2008 to examine notions of antibiotics as a category of drug, their uses, patient preferences and strategies for managing risk by accessing what were seen as ‘better’ antibiotics. Most villagers, especially those identified by peers as coming from poorer groups, expressed their ignorance around antibiotics and admitted relying entirely on trusted doctors to provide information and administer drugs. The minority of villagers who differentiated between antibiotics and other drugs claimed to base their knowledge additionally upon their own experience with the drugs, and in some cases on information from the media. Villagers’ explanations for the high level of use of antibiotics (including drips) to treat infections such as common colds, and villagers’ awareness and understanding of antibiotic resistance are explored. We finally discuss the implications of these user ‘framings’ for international and national initiatives to manage the global threat of antibiotic resistance.

The Process of Assessment

This book offers a detailed analysis and a set of carefully measured suggestions towards achieving greater integration of science, precaution, and public involvement in current arrangements for European food safety governance. The devised governance framework provides a distinctive system of methodologies, participatory processes, and institutional configurations that demonstrates practical advice of how complex and conflicting food safety demands might be reconciled. At the core of the suggestions for procedural reform is a design with four governance stages (framing, assessment, evaluation, management, with participation and communication as cross-cutting activities), and an organisation into four assessment and management tracks distinguishing between risk-, precaution-, concern- and prevention-based approaches. In addition, the book suggests an innovative food safety interface structure designed to improve the politics-science-society coordination throughout the governance process.

Institutional Innovation in the Management of Pro-Poor Energy Access in East Africa

This paper articulates a new theoretical perspective on the management of rural mini-grids for facilitating pro-poor electricity access in developing countries. Bridging the literature on common pool resource (CPR) management/collective action (including its application to irrigation systems) with the hydraulic analogy for explaining the behaviour of electricity in closed electrical circuits, a refined theoretical framework is produced for analysing the socio-cultural institutional conditions for sustainable management of rural mini-grids. The utility of the framework is demonstrated via empirical analysis of mini-grids in rural Kenya. This yields insights on socio-cultural approaches to addressing challenges relating to sustainable mini-grid management, e.g. seasonality of demand and fair allocation of limited amounts of electricity to different consumers, in ways that are acceptable to, and to some extent also enforced by the entire group of diverse resource users. The paper contributes to both the literatures on sustainable CPR management/collective action and the literature on pro-poor sustainable energy access in developing countries, providing a novel theoretical and empirical contribution to the emerging socio-cultural turn in the latter.

The Regulatory Situation for Clinical Stem Cell Research in China

This chapter reviews the regulatory situation for clinical stem cell research in the People’s Republic of China since the early 2000s. The paper is structured in four parts. Part I examines the regulatory conditions for the donation of human gametes and embryos and their use in basic and preclinical research. This involves an overview of China’s regulatory rules for assisted reproductive technologies (ART) and its approach to the governance of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research. Part II offers a summary of the regulatory and legal instruments that govern clinical trials and other forms of human subjects research in China. These instruments, most of which have been launched in the 1990s and early 2000s, do not specifically address stem cell research, but they influence clinical stem cell research as horizontal regulatory rules. Part III focuses more specifically to the regulation of clinical stem cell research and applications, including the regulation of experimental (for-profit) interventions with stem cells that do not classify as clinical trials or systematic forms of clinical research. This part documents the formation of a regulatory approach for clinical stem cell applications since the mid-2000s, which was still ongoing at the time of writing. The conclusions discuss open questions and the repercussions of China’s regulatory approach for stem cell research for domestic researchers, clinicians, and corporations in China, as well as for international clinical and corporate collaborations.

Learning about ‘Engaged Excellence’ across a Transformative Knowledge Network

The ‘Pathways’ transformative knowledge network is an international group of research organisations, collaborating to explore processes of social transformation and to share insights across disciplines, cultures and contexts. Working across the domains of food, energy and water, the network is experimenting with new methods of research and engagement that both help to understand – and contribute to – transformations to sustainability. This article outlines some of the early experiences of two hubs in the network (UK and Argentina) and reflects on the lessons learned for ‘engaged excellence’. It also describes how approaches to transdisciplinary research (building on a diversity of academic and non-academic traditions) vary across different contexts, and how wider lessons in this regard will be shared across the consortium into the future.

Implementation of the General Framework: Genetically Modified (Cry1Ab) Maize Case Study1

This chapter works through the case of placing on the market for consumption as food (not cultivation or feed) of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) Cry1Ab transgenic Zea mays in order to demonstrate how the food safety governance framework introduced in the earlier chapters of this book could be implemented. It does not make prescriptive judgements regarding decisions that the respective institutions should make (e.g. around terms of reference, screening criteria or assessment outcomes), however it explains the mechanisms through which each of these stages would be executed, suggests possible results at each of these junctures and explains the potential consequences in terms of subsequent stages in the governance framework. Bt maize is among the first generation of genetically modified foods that were submitted for regulatory appraisal within the European Union (as early as 1994 2 ), and several events have received food safety clearance from EFSA. It is maize that has been engineered to express insecticidal toxins from the bacteria B. thuringiensis . Cry1Ab is a type of toxin that targets certain Lepidopteran pests (butterflies and moths). The example is reminiscent of past product notifications for Bt176, Mon810 and Bt11 under the Deliberate Release Directive 90/220 or the extension to include Bt11 sweet maize (to the Netherlands) under the Novel Foods Directive 258/97, as well as subsequent applications (through various legal procedures) for stacked varieties derived from the aforementioned events. In addition, brief reference will be made to the discovery in December 2004 that Bt11 maize planted in

Book Review: Science, agriculture and the politics of policy: the case of biotechnology in India by Ian Scoones

Science, agriculture and the politics of policy: the case of biotechnology in India, by Ian Scoones. New Delhi, Orient Longman, 2006 India. ISBN: 81 250 2942 7