The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) in collaboration with the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) cordially invites you to a hybrid seminar titled ‘Innovation for inclusive development and economics: Interpretations and policy implications’ on 7 August 2024 in the Ruby Auditorium, CSIR Convention Centre, Meiring Naude Road, Brummeria, Pretoria.

The seminar is based on a chapter by Professor Mario Scerri, published in Innovation for inclusive development and transformation in South Africa, edited by Prof. Charles Hongoro, Prof. Cyril Adonis, and Dr Konosoang Sobane.

The study of innovation for inclusive development currently occupies a peripheral position in economics.  This is of concern both analytically and with regard to policy formulation.  The current positioning of this area of study is due primarily to the shape of the dominant discourse in economics, which emerged in the second half of the twentieth century.  This discourse implicitly excludes most of the disciplinary areas that make up inclusive innovation studies and whose policy prescriptions leave little space for the normative implications of studies on innovation for inclusive development.  To some extent, the peripheral position of inclusive innovation studies is also due to the limitation of these studies to rural areas and to the high focus on technological innovations within the analytical framework of the narrow version of the system of innovation approach.  This seminar will explore the implications for inclusive innovation studies that seek to reduce those excluded in the twenty-first century and of adopting a broad version of the system of innovation approach as the theoretical framework.  It will explore the policy implications of these changes in the conceptualisation of innovation for inclusive development in the case of South African science, technology and innovation policy against the backdrop of national economic planning.

Join us for a free, live and online conversation with Professor Mario Scerri the Founding Chairholder of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

Date: Wednesday, 07 August 2024
Time:  14:00 to 16:00
Venue: Ruby Auditorium, CSIR Convention Centre, Meiring Naude Road, Brummeria, Pretoria

Register to attend: Please click here to register.

View the programme: