National Innovation Systems, Social Inclusion And Development: The Latin American Experience

Extract

This book presents an interesting collection of studies that approach innovation as a complex interrelationship among actors, institutional environments and economic and knowledge systems. The studies shed light on what are the key interactive factors and what conclusions can be drawn from several countries’ experiences in dealing with such complex situations. This is done by providing different analytical perspectives on the links between social inclusion, development and national systems of innovation (NSI). These perspectives cover a broad range of approaches, from conceptual to empirical, as well as from evaluating the gaps and opportunities of different NSIs to proposing new design frameworks.

The first Chapter discusses the conceptualization of development and democratization of knowledge as fundamental elements of social inclusion through innovation. Arocena and Sutz suggest that democratization of knowledge is a crucial factor to promote social inclusion because the interactions between advanced knowledge and global power dynamics define winners and losses of innovation benefits. The authors recommend designing a new framework that combines different analytical approaches to examine knowledge access and innovation so the right actions can be identified.