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，这些过程将特定类型的领导者聚集在一起，并激励他们形成跨国设计网络以及计算和通信技术创新。阿克拉(加纳)、深圳(中国)和硅谷(美国)的科技创业文化的民族志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线？这些地区在设计和实施新技术方面的日常做法是什么？塑造它们的社会、文化和经济进程是什么？无论是在技术生产的高端空间，还是在街边的低技术摊位，技术创业者都会将一系列技术技能和商业敏锐结合起来，跨越国界，设计、获取、修改和分发信息技术。所有这些发展都表明，技术、设计和创新在哪里以及如何发生，正在发生一场规模更大、正在展开的变革。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一个全球联系日益紧密的世界中发生变化的细微差别的理解。它还展示了资源丰富和资源受限的环境是如何在全国范围内进行创新的，并确定了可以从这些环境中学到什么。具体地说，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业企业家。第一类人经常出现在初创企业、孵化器和科技中心，而第二类人则在工厂、修理店和电子市场工作。虽然其中每一个都在特定的网络中工作，但随着硬件原型变得更加负担得起和软件开发变得容易获得，它们正越来越多地结合在一起。研究人员将在他们的手术地点与这两组人接触，观察和采访他们，这是人种学研究的标准。基本目标是确定在科技创业和创新中流通的概念，如创业文化、设计思维和物联网，如何塑造当地战略和跨国技术生产关系。

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.