CHS: Small: Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship Cultures between Ghana, South China, and Silicon Valley

这项研究将调查当代社会和技术过程，汇集和激励特定类型的领导者塑造设计和创新的跨国网络在计算和通信技术。 对阿克拉（加纳）、深圳（中国）和硅谷（美国）科技创业文化的人种学研究将记录全球科技生产的复杂现实。 谁站在塑造这些新兴关系的最前沿？这些地区之间在设计和实施新技术方面的日常做法是什么？形成这些做法的社会、文化和经济进程是什么？ 无论是在高端的技术生产空间，还是在街边的低技术摊位上，技术企业家都将一系列技术技能和商业智慧跨界结合起来，设计、获取、修改和分发信息技术。所有这些发展都说明了技术设计和创新在何处以及如何发生的更大和目前正在发生的转变。 通过关注创新和创业文化，该项目促进了对技术生产模式如何在全球联系日益紧密的世界中发生变化的微妙理解。它还显示了资源丰富和资源有限的环境是如何进行跨国创新的，并确定了可以从中学到什么。 具体来说，这项研究涉及两类创新者：1）制造软件和硬件产品的跨国科技企业家; 2）组装、分销和维修电子设备的硬件销售商和制造企业家。第一组通常在初创企业、孵化器和科技中心，而第二组则在工厂、维修店和电子市场工作。虽然每一种都适用于特定的网络，但随着硬件原型变得更加经济实惠，软件开发变得更加容易，它们越来越多地结合在一起。研究人员将在他们的工作地点与这两个群体接触，观察和采访他们，这是民族志研究的标准。基本目标是确定技术创业和创新中的循环概念，如创业文化，设计思维和物联网如何塑造技术生产的本地战略和跨国关系。

This research will investigate contemporary social and technological processes that bring together and motivate specific kinds of leaders shaping transnational networks of design and innovation in computing and communication technologies. Ethnographic research of tech entrepreneurship cultures in Accra (Ghana), Shenzhen (China), and Silicon Valley (USA) will document the complex reality of global technology production. Who is at the forefront of molding these emergent relations? What are the daily practices in the design and implementation of new technologies between these regions, and what are the social, cultural and economic processes that shape them? In both the high-end spaces of technology production and in the street-side low-tech stalls, technology entrepreneurs combine a range of tech skills and business acumen across borders to design, acquire, modify and distribute information technologies. All of these developments speak to a larger and currently unfolding transformation of where and how technology design and innovation take place. By focusing on innovation and entrepreneurship cultures, this project fosters a nuanced understanding of how models of technology production are changing in a world that is growing more connected globally. It also shows how both resource-rich and resource-constrained environments are innovating transnationally, and identifies what can be learned from them. Specifically, the research engages with two groups of innovators: 1) transnational tech entrepreneurs making software and hardware products; 2) hardware sellers and manufacturing entrepreneurs who assemble, distribute and repair electronic devices. The first group is often found in start-ups, incubators, and tech hubs whereas the second group works from factories, repair shops, and electronic markets. While each of these works in particular networks, they are increasingly coming together as hardware prototyping becomes more affordable and software development readily available. The researchers will engage with both groups across their sites of operation, observing and interviewing them as is standard in ethnographic study. The underlying goal is to identify how circulating concepts in tech entrepreneurship and innovation like start-up culture, design thinking, and Internet of Things shape both local strategies and transnational relations of technology production.