How to make the tools of economics and innovation studies suitable and instrumental to development? Helena Maria Martins Lastres RedeSist, UFRJ, Brazil Tribute to Jo Lorentzen Innovation and Development Annual Lecture Cape Town, 24 January 2018 Supported by: HSRC, Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The lecture aims at addressing the question put forward in the first issue of Innovation and Development Vol. 1, No. 1, April 2011, by the Editors in “ Jo Lorentzen: a tribute ” . why the way we look at things doesn’t help us reach our aim of making the tools, perspectives and methodologies of economics and innovation studies relevant to poor people in developing countries? By recuperating the 20 year of research and policy experiences of RedeSist in Brazil, and also by Lalics, in Latina America, and Globelics, the lecture will explore five main elements to guide the proposed reflection: 2
1 - Most research and policy frameworks and models have not been entirely capable of assimilating the advances achieved in the last 3 decades in the understanding of innovation – as a contextualized and systemic process Limited and out-dated notion of innovation and its analytical and policy backgrounds and possibilities bias towards radical innovations occurring only in high-tech • sectors, as a result of R&D performed by big firms in MDCs confusion between knowledge and information; invention and • innovation, innovation and learning and between technology and equipment importation of technologies as a supposed means to “catch - up” • or “leap - frog” dissociation of innovation and the promotion of social and • territorial development 3
" The ‘number makers’ are trying to come up with STI indicators in the absence of a consolidated body of knowledge on innovation in poor countries ... they are sticking to conventional R&D measures, which in the African context are currently clearly not the most important indicators of human progress and economic development. … It is only when innovation in low income countries becomes better understood that policy can address problems whose solutions have eluded the poor for too long ” (Lorentzen, 2011) Until the lion has his or her own storyteller, the hunter will always have the best part of the story (African Proverb) 4
2. De-contextualization of theories, indicators and methodologies usually leads to invisibilities and distortions . Inadequate use of imported theories and methodologies excludes activities, agents and territories both from the research and the policy agendas • “invisible exclusion” - concepts, methodologies and instruments that encapsulate political decisions and eliminate them by definition • E.g.: policies targeting the increase of R&D and patents and instruments such as fiscal incentives and most of the financing schemes These negative consequences are stronger in the case of peripheral countries and regions. • Reinforcement of exclusions and inequalities 5
One of the main points raised in the analyses of the South African innovation policies: potential and constraints was that: “ The policy that was adopted did not adequately take into account the historical and contextual conditions of South Africa ” (Kruss and Lorentzen, 2009) • Need to address the strategic development priorities of the different local, regional and national contexts ✓ Innovation policies can and should contribute to reduce regional and social inequalities and exclusion - This also highlights the need to contextualize teaching, research, analytical and policy frameworks 6
3. Production and innovation efforts are not limited to economic development nor to the activities of particular companies, sectors and regions Narrow definitions of innovation are “ theoretically unsatisfactory, empirically unhelpful and not constructive for policy ” ( Lorentzen, 2009c) Systemic, territorialized and sustainable vision of development “ growth by itself has not and will not alleviate poverty to the desired extent. This acknowledgement, however, is largely limited to the recognition that economic opportunities often escape the poor because of skill or other constraints ” 7
Reductionism can lead to serious negative consequences • in the analytical dimension, a failure to perceive and understand local and national conditions • an enormous percentage of our work and knowledge activities remain invisible and excluded ("below the radar") both in terms of the research and the policy agenda • reinforcement of inequalities and chasms • supposed “paradoxes” • in the policy dimension - adding up to this massive exclusion of important activities, agents and territories - a trend to submit local conditions to inappropriate models and to blame and punish them not to conform to these models 8
Procrustes and his "magical" bed Procrustes offered hospitality to passing strangers, who were invited in for a night's rest in his very special bed. Procrustes described it as having the unique property that its length exactly matched whomsoever lay down upon it. What Procrustes didn't explain was the method by which this "one-size-fits-all" was achieved: Procrustes would stretch him on the rack if he was too short for the bed and chop off his legs if he was too long (Lastres & Cassiolato, Globelics South Africa, 2005) 9
Sharp and sarcastic criticisms : “ Seasoned observers identified the wild South - although they would of course never call it that - as the next big frontier in innovation research awaiting colonisation … The concerned natives differed in their response to the onslaught, often on the basis of where they were located. Latin Americans ... argued that due to the distance between the South and the developed world, importing turn-key institutions and policies was not an option. Not … surprisingly, work on East Asia was generally less concerned with the feasibility of applying NIS to explain the economic successes of the assortment of tigers, dragons, and other critter in the high-growth menagerie (Lorentzen, 2009c) 10
4. The increasing globalization, financialization and recurrent financial crises pose new challenges to the economy, and especially the production and innovation structure of different countries and territories. Financial logic is contrary to risk and long term • its impacts are particularly negative for the generation of knowledge and innovation • it tends to reinforce “spurious competitions” (Fajnzylber, 1988): very low wages, precarious working conditions and unsustainable ways to produce and use natural resources • the struggle is first of all to survive and continue to produce 1 1
Short termism, risk aversion, rentier logics and primacy of recessionary austerity policies have: • contributed to the loss of production capabilities and to “regressive industrialization” and stagnation • increased inequality and precarization of work and living conditions • led to the erosion of economic and political space of governments “The liberalization of capital movements , in the last quarter of the twentieth century, has rendered almost every country more vulnerable to the instability and shocks which can be propagated throughout the system, however well local innovation systems may have been performing in a narrower sphere … political regulation is essential” (Freeman, 2003) 1 2
5. The role of the State in overcoming the lack of coherence, coordination and continuity of innovation policies. Opportunities to contextualize research and policy agendas and priorize social inclusion and sustainable development Revision of research emphasis ✓ from copying MDC’s theories, methodologies, indicators and models, as well as their development agenda ✓ to developing and using proper and contextualized concepts, indicators, methodologies and policy models Revision of policy emphasis ✓ from imitating and implementing top-down exogenous models ✓ to implementing adequate policies, capable of stimulating the formulation of contextualized solutions for development from the micro to the macro level and vice-versa – bottom-up and top-down 13
Opportunities for articulating, instead of fragmenting and antagonizing, the goals • of economic, social, environmental, political and institutional development focusing on the development of the different production and • innovation systems as well as their territories Revision of policy emphasis from technology imports • to promoting capabilities and solid, interactive and dynamic • local and national production and innovation structures Need to implement policies capable of: stimulating the capacity of generating, assimilating, using, • accumulating and diffusing knowledge fostering interactions and synergies among actors performing • different functions within one or more local innovation and production systems - LIPSs 14
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