Recalling the Lucas Plan: What can an old movement for socially useful production tell us about inclusive innovation today?

• In Event: What is Innovation for Social Inclusion? I

Abstract

Over thirty years ago, a movement for ‘socially useful production’ in the UK pioneered practical approaches for more democratic technology development. Of course, the world is different now. Nevertheless, remembering older initiatives casts enduring issues about the direction of technological development in society in a different and informative light: an issue relevant today in debates about inclusive innovation.

It was in January 1976 that workers at Lucas Aerospace published an Alternative Plan for the future of their corporation. It was a novel response to management announcements that thousands of manufacturing jobs were to be cut in the face of industrial restructuring, international competition, and technological change. Instead of redundancy, workers argued their right to socially useful production.
Rejected by management and government, the Plan’s arguments attracted workers from other sectors, community activists, radical scientists, environmentalists, and the Left. The Plan became symbolic for a movement of activists committed to innovation for purposes of social use over private profit. Prototypes were developed, centres opened, and community workshops opened to enable people to innovate for their needs.

With hindsight, the movement was swimming against the political and economic tide, but at the time things looked less clear-cut, and some of their ideas proved influential. Recalling the movement now, what is striking is the importance activists attached to practical engagements in technology development as part of their politics. We will discuss the relevance for inclusive innovation today of old questions connecting tacit knowledge and participatory prototyping to the political economy of technology development.

Author

• Adrian Smith, University of Sussex