Norman Clark

Why Research Partnerships Really Matter: Innovation Theory, Institutional Arrangements and Implications for Developing New Technology for the Poor

Abstract This paper explores the conceptual basis for existing and emergent institutional patterns in the context of partnership approaches to technology development. Drawing examples from recent studies of private enterprise activity in India smallholder horticulture, it suggests that agricultural innovation as a process involves a wider range of organizational types than the conventional policy focus on public sector research organizations would tend to suggest. It uses the concept of a “national innovation system” to argue that a partnership approach is adopted as a core methodology for engaging science and technology development with the livelihood demands of the poor.

From measuring impact to learning institutional lessons: an innovation systems perspective on improving the management of international agricultural research

This paper argues that impact assessment research has not made more of a difference because the measurement of the economic impact has poor diagnostic power. In particular it fails to provide research managers with critical institutional lessons concerning ways of improving research and innovation as a process. Our contention is that the linear input–output assumptions of economic assessment need to be complemented by an analytical framework that recognises systems of reflexive, learning interactions and their location in, and relationship with, their institutional context. The innovation systems framework is proposed as an approach where institutional learning is explicit. Three case studies of recent developments in international agricultural research are presented to illustrate these points. We conclude by suggesting that the innovation systems framework has much to offer research managers wishing to monitor and learn new ways of addressing goals such as poverty alleviation. The greatest challenge however, is that such holistic learning frameworks must contend for legitimacy if they are to complement the dominant paradigm of economic assessment.

Innovation Systems, Institutional Change And The New Knowledge Market: Implications For Third World Agricultural Development

This paper uses a simplified version of classical information theory to improve understanding of the dynamic potential of innovation systems in developing countries with a special focus on issues of agricultural poverty. Using examples drawn from emergent knowledge markets in industrialised countries, the paper suggests that such an analytical approach focuses attention directly on the types of institutional reforms necessary to improve the effectiveness of Third World agricultural R&D. Contrast is made with more conventional approaches that take institutional structures as given and focus more on factors such as price regimes, policy weaknesses and political will. The paper argues that so great now are the problems in this area (particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa) that there is a clear need for institutional reform to accompany relevant technological changes. In the absence of such reform innovative (and hence economic) potential is likely to be compromised.

Similarities and differences between scientific and technological paradigms

Abstract This article examines issues in the philosophy of science and the sociology of knowledge with a view to understanding their relevance to technology and technical change. The argument is developed that, while there are important areas of similarity, two significant differences lie in the social complexity of technological communities and in the extent to which market vulnerability prevails.

Coping with change, complexity and diversity in agriculture -- the case of rhizobium inoculants in Thailand

Abstract In recent years the accepted organizational pattern of relations between science and production has begun increasingly to be called in question. In the area of peasant agriculture, this generally takes the form of a critique of a system based upon centralized research institutes and hierarchically administered extension agencies. This paper explores this theme by means of an empirical study of the impact of rhizobium inoculant technology on selected areas of peasant agriculture in Thailand. The paper shows that this (core) scientifically derived technology has had widely different effects in different locations, and that these involve complex interactions with different biological systems. The evidence suggests that there are independent knowledge systems possessed by farmers who combine this knowledge innovatively with the core technology to produce outcomes that vary over time and space. The case, in common with many others, indicates also that core scientists are reluctant to accept technological complexity, preferring instead to leave responsibility for application to the extension system, even when it is clear that more research may be necessary.

Science, technology and regional economic development

Abstract In recent years it has become clear that a firms competitive position is significantly influenced by its capacity to innovate. This paper explores the hypothesis that if there are factors operating at the regional level which inhibit this capacity, then firms located in particular regions may suffer. One such factor might be a lack of centralized scientific services. Regions under-represented in terms of a viable scientific infrastructure may find difficulty in attrating new science-based firms, and firms already in the region may find themselves at a comparative disavantage compared with firms located elsewhere. Social forces of this kind might be playing an important part in enhancing the social and economic problems of underdeveloped regions.

Development policy, technology assessment and the new technologies

Abstract The North-South economic gap continues to grow. Better understanding of the potentiality of new technology and the science and technology process in the South may allow faster economic development. This article considers these issues first within the context of development theory. A new perspective is then proposed which views development as a complex process of structural change influenced by new technologies, and policy implications for LDCs are drawn. Finally, guidelines for Third World policy making are outlined, taking biotechnology and telecommunications as case studies.

Biotechnology and development: threats and promises for the 21st century

This paper sets out to clarify the complex issues of risk perception and management in connection with biotechnology and Third World development. It summarises the main threats and promises associated with the technology before explaining why traditional approaches to risk are flawed from both a scientific and an ethical standpoint. It ends by making suggestions about how the precautionary principle may be made an operational tool for governments interested in ensuring that biotechnology leads to sustainable development.

Public policy and technological change in Africa: Aspects of institutions and management capacity

This paper explores the notion of “capacity building” from the standpoint of the technological expertise needed for sustainable development policy analysis and execution. It argues that this definition is probably at the root of the concept since it captures the fundamental creativity of an economic system while at the same time mapping on other definitions of “capacity”. After defining it more completely in terms of “technological capability” the paper couches its analysis in the more general context of knowledge, its pursuit, validation, dissemination and use. In turn this suggests that conventional institutional structures, such as those normally associated with tertiary education, are probably ill suited on their own to play the necessary transformational role needed by many African countries. This is especially so in the complex field of environmental policy. The paper ends by making a number of suggestions on alternative modes illustrated by a programme currently in operation in East and Southern Africa.

Strategic planning of complex economic systems

A major drawback of conventional models of the behavior of economic systems (and derived tools for policy intervention) is that the desire for tractability leads generally to a high degree of abstraction from reality. This article suggests an alternative, and arguably complementary, approach which engages specifically with economic complexity. The technique used is one of interactive spatial modelling over long time periods where the principle economic agents base decisions on incomplete heuristic information. For illustrative purposes the model has been calibrated on the basis of Senegalese data for 1981–91 and broad generic equations presented. The article argues that such a methodological approach holds out considerable advantages for strategic planning of sustainable economic systems. In particular it permits the direct engagement of noneconomic disciplines and client stakeholders in the planning process.