Doctoral Dissertation Research: Socially Responsible Innovation Systems and Contesting Knowledge: NGOs fighting blindness in the U.S., Kenya, Nepal and India

为什么由独立的社会企业产生的高科技创新在发展中国家出现？这些创新是如何被转移到世界其他国家的？本文通过对世界卫生组织2020年愿景（WHOV）规划的研究来探讨这些问题。世卫组织的目标是在全球根除可避免盲症，除其他活动外，赞助印度和尼泊尔的非政府组织创造新的外科科学和眼科技术，以治疗盲症。这些创新产品分布于全球，包括其他发展中国家的眼科医院，以及美国等富裕国家的眼科医生和全球卫生专业人员。为了调查这些创新是如何发展的，以及它们如何转移到世界其他地区，使用了一种称为扩展案例法的研究方法。它包括在肯尼亚、尼泊尔和印度的眼科医院进行多地点人种学分析和半结构化访谈。这项研究的理论意义在于，它反驳了高度复杂的科学技术在西方发展并转移到发展中国家的假设。它还发展了关于非营利组织在创造市场中的作用的新理论知识，为社会企业为高质量的现代科学技术提供资金的动态理论做出了贡献。关于创新和技术转移的理论和实证研究结果被用于在伦斯勒理工学院的NSF三重螺旋GK-12项目中培训工程专业的学生。一个参与式摄影项目在创新过程中融入了患者的视角。

Why has high-tech innovation produced by independent social enterprises emerged in developing countries? And how are these innovations being transferred to other countries around the world? This dissertation research investigates these questions through a study of the World Health Organization Vision 2020 (WHOV) program. The goal of the WHOV is to eradicate avoidable blindness globally, by, among other activities, sponsoring NGOs in India and Nepal who create new surgical science and ophthalmic technology in order to treat blindness. These innovations are distributed globally, to eye hospitals in other developing countries and to ophthalmologists and global health professionals in wealthy countries such as the United States. To investigate how these innovations are developed and how they move to other parts of the world, a research methodology called the extended case method is used. It includes a multi-site ethnographic analysis and semi-structured interviews at eye hospitals in Kenya, Nepal and India.The theoretical significance of this research is that it contradicts the assumption that highly sophisticated science and technology is developed in the west and transferred to developing countries.It also develops new theoretical knowledge about the role of nonprofit organizations in generating markets, contributing to theories of the dynamics of social enterprise funding for high-quality modern science and technology. Theoretical and empirical findings about innovation and technology transfer are used to train engineering students in the NSF Triple Helix GK-12 program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. A participatory photography project incorporates the perspectives of patients in the innovation process.