Local Systems of Production

I have had several discussions with a friend on innovation and innovation systems. According to my friend innovation is a Euro-centric or American concept. Innovations cannot occur where there are no institutions that support it e.g. in Africa and many other developing countries. According to him many developing countries simply have no or very poor regional systems of innovation (RSI) and if they are at all then they do not qualify to be known as such. In the long run he only felt that maybe developing countries could have National Innovation Systems. As the discussion went on and he also felt that evolutionary economics cannot be applied to the economic processes of Africa. Lastly discussing about technology, he felt that this too is a western term and hence can not be applied harphazardly to any other economy.

In my answer to him, I asked him several questions: What is innovation? What is the purpose of innovation? How does innovation occur? When is an innovation considered an innovation? Are poor countries completely incapable of innovating? Then we moved to technology and lastly economics both mainstream approaches and heterodox approaches.

Technological innovation is a contextual process whose relevance should be assessed on the social economic situations it is embedded in. Technological innovation focuses largely on mechanical approach that emphasizes gradual technological accumulation. While this approach may be satisfactory in capturing the process of industrialization and manufacturing it does very little to capture various types of innovation processes. There is also the process of social innovation which involves trans formative work, solving complex societal problems and introducing real social change. In most cases social innovations are as a result of a
collaborative effort between various players. Certainly there are different sets of institutions that are required for a social innovation on the one hand and a technological innovation on the other.

Social Entrepreneurship: Comparative Perspectives

Last two weeks I attended 1. EMES International Conference on Social Entrepreneurship in Trento, Italia and 2. European Summer School on Social Economy in Bologna, Italy. In the two events there were presentations from all countries in the world including USA, China, Europe and Africa.

I was interested on the aspects of the economy that lead to the emergency of the third sector and ultimately social entrepreneurs. I came to realise that in Europe with a strong tradition of the welfare state the third sector complements the welfare state. In essence it arises as a result of the state privatising some of its services. America on the other hand has a strong tradition of entrepreneurship and philanthropy. The third sector therefore emerges from the entreprise sector and raises its resources from the private resources. In Africa and Kenya for example the third sector arises out of the deep problems we have locally. Majority of the players in the third sector are very small and do suffer from a serious lack of resources... should we talk about "subsistence social entrepreneurs." Despite the serious lack of resources, they still have some small impacts on their societies.

Quite amazing, different constitutions of the third sector in each and evey place. In this case therefore Africa needs to define very well what social entrepreneurship is and should not just take the EMES, Ashoka, Asian or Even Latin American definintion. Quite a challenge, is it not???

Another instance of Racism at a Summer School in Italy

In this summer school at Bertinoro we were had a wonderful session of discussing about the roles of different stakeholders in a social entreprise. I represented the clients (companions) group. A long day passed and in the evening one Italian participant greets me and calls me "black Panther." I was stunned and offended. I expressed to him my disappointment. This is the worst of racist puns ever directed to me in my three years in Italy. The Italian people are generally very tolerant and welcoming and do treat alliens with respect. This pun coming from a participant of the summer school has really shocked me. Maybe I should take my complaints higher.