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

国际上对发达国家和发展中国家之间生活条件的巨大差异日益感到关切。经济发展被认为是缩小贫富差距并随后缓解随之而来的社会紧张局势的必要条件。在科技政策界，技术创新被视为经济增长的引擎，因此有助于缩小经济差距。国家创新系统理论确定了促进社会技术创新的制度配置。这些理论和结构在工业化世界的背景下得到了很大的发展。随着注意力转向发展中国家的状况，必须严格评估国家创新系统框架的适用性。特别需要进一步研究国家创新理论的社会方面。来自不同财富阶层的经济发展战略家、社会科学家和历史学家都强调，科学技术在缩小国家间差距方面发挥着重要作用。科学和技术创新被视为调动社会更好地利用其自然资源的能力的基本动力。然而，在考虑科学和技术的作用和潜在利益时，不能没有社会敏感性；因为科学的工艺和技术的发展从根本上说是社会的产物。因此，对科学和技术在缩小国家间贫富差距方面发挥作用的希望必须以社会现实为基础。“科技论文改进研究基金”是推动科技创新成为经济发展的有效工具的一个组成部分。本研究试图通过引入创新作为解放工具的概念来检验国家创新系统框架在发展中国家背景下的适用性。特别是在经历过奴役和殖民的发展中国家，创新不仅仅是经济发展的工具。它也是一种解放的工具。该项目将探讨巴巴多斯和圭亚那制糖业的经验作为案例研究。创新将被视为一个具有双重功能的概念：1)作为经济发展的工具，2)作为解放的工具。从这两个方面考虑制糖业创新的分析考虑到了一些国家特定历史的影响，这些国家的过去包括被奴役和被殖民。世界贸易组织即将作出关于食糖优惠贸易的决定，以及加勒比地区五百年的食糖历史，都证明对制糖业进行审查是合理的。加勒比批评文学已经浮出了创新作为解放的文化意义。创新理论规定了促进创新的制度结构和关系。本研究将关注这两种思想的融合，试图在发展中国家更有效地应用创新理论。

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.