Grassroots Innovation and Sustainable Development

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Grassroots Innovation and Sustainable
Development Adrian Smith SPRU Science
Technology Policy Research Unit University of
Sussex June 2003
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PRESENTATION OBJECTIVES

• 1. Share experiences and exchange ideas about
  grassroots innovation.
• 2. Discuss any benefits that an innovation
  perspective might bring to local sustainability
  initiatives
• Explore how innovative technologies combine with
  social innovations
• Should policy support the grassroots diffusion of
  sustainable technologies?

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PRESENTATION PLAN

• Sustainable technology diffusion - some ideas
  from innovation research
• A role for grassroots innovators?
• Conclusions - some issues for discussion

Plan
Conclusions
Grassroots
Research
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SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGY DIFFUSION

• Successful innovations are high-use (cf.
  high-tech). They are systems of gadgets, skills,
  incentives, people etc that work together
• Use of new technologies begins in pioneering
  niches
• promote learning-selection and adaptation
• Diffusion of technology into the mainstream
  involves
• resources, skills, markets, infrastructure,
  policy, participation and feedback

Plan
Conclusions
Grassroots
Research
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GRASSROOTS INNOVATIONS
Grassroots innovation?
Source Boru Douthwaite (2002)
Plan
Conclusions
Grassroots
Research
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GRASSROOTS INNOVATIONS

• Grassroots innovators have been promoting
  sustainable technology use for decades (e.g. fuel
  poverty, community recycling, organic food, local
  cycling campaigns)
• Characteristics include
• seeking the triple bottom-line
• alternatives to mainstream practices
• bottom-up use of technology
• emphasis on social innovation cf. technology RD
• mix of idealism and pragmatic entrepreneurship
• happens in local networks and communities

Plan
Conclusions
Grassroots
Research
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GRASSROOTS INNOVATIONS

• Q Why are grassroots innovations important?
• A (perhaps) because they
• tap into local circumstances and enthusiasm
• Practical projects are valuable focal points for
  people from a variety of backgrounds
• build up experience and skills
• opportunities that make technologies normal
• deliver deeper sustainability (the
  triple-bottom-line)
• could feedback into more effective sustainable
  technology development (adaptation)

Plan
Conclusions
Grassroots
Research
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CONCLUSIONS

• The diffusion of sustainable innovations involves
  system building, and different stakeholders bring
  different functions to the system building task
  how do we build those systems?
• The grassroots can provide innovative
  opportunities for system adaptation, and can feed
  back user experience - how do we support and
  facilitate such bottom-up diffusion?

Plan
Conclusions
Grassroots
Research