Under What Conditions Are Innovations Inclusive in Economic Theory?

Library Seminar Rooms 1 & 2, OU, Milton Keynes

International Development seminar presented by Professor Smita Srinivas (Head, School of Economic Development, Indian Institute for Human Settlements, and Visiting Professor in Economics, IKD).

Lunch (provided) from 12.00, presentation & discussion 12.30 - 14.00. To reserve your free place, please email the Social Sciences Research Office.

Abstract
There is increasing concern amongst scholars and practitioners that both the innovation process itself, and the innovative products and processes that emerge, seem to exclude important populations – particularly in industrialising contexts. Can these issues be framed comfortably within economic theory? And under what conditions might innovations be inclusive?

In her seminar, Professor Srinivas will draw on research developed in her earlier book, Market Menagerie: Health and Development in Late Industrial States, as well as her current preoccupation with theories of action and the relative absence of value propositions in innovation and economic scholarship. After all, theories of innovation are not theories of the economy as a whole, but rather – arguably – are a subset requiring a language to embed innovation in society. The session will thus cover select political philosophy debates about spheres of action and redistribution.

A marriage of evolutionary perspectives with the political economy of late industrial development – previously developed by Professor Srinivas in some of her research – offers resolutions but also some structural dilemmas for clarifying public benefit and action. Using examples from agriculture, health, and manufacturing, she will therefore dwell on Schumpeter's formulation of the innovator and the extensions to useful theories of learning and innovation for late industrial theories of development.

​References
​S Srinivas (2016): "Knowledge Assets in Late Industrial Development: Amsden's Challenge and Challenge for Amsden". (Draft paper available on request.)
T Pappaioannou and S Srinivas (2016): "Innovation as a Political Process of Development: Are Neo-Schumpetarians Value Neutral?" (Conference paper presented at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) 50th Anniversary conference 2016, Globelics 2016 and others.)
S Srinivas and J Vieira Filho (2015): "Farms versus Firms in Economic Development: The Assumptions and Consequences of Learning Dynamics in Agriculture and Manufacturing". (Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA) Brasilia, Brazil, Discussion Paper 207, October.)
S Srinivas (2015): "Healthy Industries, Unhealthy Populations: Lessons from Indian Problem-Solving" in M Mackintosh, G Banda, W Wamae, and P Tibandebage (Eds.), Making Medicines in Africa: The Political Economy of Industrializing for Local Health. (Palgrave MacMillan)
S Srinivas (2014): "Demand and Innovation: Paths to Inclusive Development" in S Ramani (Ed.) Innovation in India: Combining Economic Growth with Inclusive Development. (Cambridge University Press)
S Srinivas (2012): Market Menagerie: Health and Development in Late Industrial States. (Stanford University Press)