Dissertation Research: The Duality of Innovation: The Understudied Aspect of Innovation Theory

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There is increasing international concern about the tremendous disparities in the living conditions between developed and developing nations. Economic development is regarded as a necessary condition for closing wealth gaps and subsequently easing attendant social tensions. In the science and technology policy community, technological innovation is seen as an engine for economic growth and therefore a contributor to closing economic gaps. National Innovation Systems theories identify institutional configurations that promote technological innovation in societies. The theories and configurations have evolved largely in the industrialized world context. As attention turns to the condition of the developing world, the applicability of the National Innovation Systems framework must be critically assessed. There is a specific need for further examination of the social aspects of National Innovation Theory. Economic development strategists, social scientists and historians, from across the spectrum of wealth, emphasize the role of science and technology as being instrumental in closing the gap between nations. Scientific and technological innovation are seen as essential engines in mobilizing the ability of societies to make better use of their natural resources. The role and potential benefit of science and technology, however, cannot be considered without social sensitivity; for the craft of science and the evolution of technology are at their root social artifacts. As a result, the hope for science and technology to be instrumental in closing the wealth gap between nations must be anchored to social realities. This Research on Science and Technology Dissertation Improvement Grant is a component of the effort to promote scientific and technological innovation as an effective tool in economic development. This research attempts to examine the applicability of the National Innovation Systems framework in the developing country context by introducing the concept of innovation as a tool for liberation. Particularly in developing nations that have endured both slavery and colonization, innovation is more than a tool for economic development. It is also a tool for liberation. The project will explore the experiences of the sugar industry in Barbados and Guyana as case studies. Innovation will be treated as a concept with dual functions: 1) as a tool for economic development and 2) as a tool for liberation. An analysis that considers innovation in the sugar industry in these two dimensions allows for the influence of the specific histories of countries whose pasts include being enslaved and colonized. Examination of the sugar industry is justified both by the impending decisions of the World trade Organization with regards to preferential trading in sugar as well as the five hundred year history of sugar in the Caribbean. Caribbean critical literature has surfaced the cultural meaning of innovation as liberation. Innovation theory has prescribed institutional structures and relationships that foster innovation. This research will focus on the fusion of those two bodies of thought in an attempt to apply innovation theory more effectively in the developing world.