Exploring Regional Innovation Cultures

Abstract

Universalist models of innovation face a crisis of both technical reproducibility and societal support. The geography of innovation is thoroughly unequal. Repeated failures to spur innovation in so-called developing or "underperforming" regions have revealed the limits of thinking about innovation in terms of quasi-universal models (e.g. National Innovation Systems) or best practice transfer (e.g. Silicon Valley). At the heart of this problem is the persistent inability to seriously include local socio-economic traditions, political cultures, and regional identity into mainstream innovation theory.

We invite contributions (incl. unconventional formats) that explore how regions perceive and position themselves vis-à-vis the perceived "innovation imperative" through their unique local social, cultural, and political constraints. How do globally circulating models interrupt or, perhaps, regenerate existing regional identities and institutional orders? What happens when populations reject or subvert innovation initiatives? What alternative imaginations of economic prosperity and epistemic authority do they propose instead?

This session seeks to muster new support for a "cultural turn" in innovation theory and practice. We argue that the successes and failures of innovation policy in regions cannot be explained without taking into account the locally specific understandings of what innovation is, what (and who) it is for, how it relates to local history and identity, and in which political culture it is embedded – even if, on the face of it, the policy instruments look the same. We encourage all types of submissions that provide a counterpoint to the persistent tendencies to frame analyses and interventions around quasi-universal models, systems, and "best practices."

Individual Presentations

• Conservative Innovation Cultures and the Case of Bavaria - Alexander Wentland, Technical University of Munich; Sebastian Michael Pfotenhauer, Technical University Munich; Luise M Ruge, TU München

• Cultural Epistemologies and Ecologies of Practice in Regional Environmental Disaster Resilience Innovation Policy and Practice - Chris Goldsworthy, Institute for Science, Innovation and Society, University of Oxford

• Boundary Work and Transversality: Cataloguing Typologies of North-South Governance of Emerging Technologies - Ogundiran Soumonni, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa; Thomas S Woodson, Stony Brook University; Rider W Foley, University of Virginia; Susan Cozzens, Georgia Institute of Technology

• Sociotechnical Imaginaries as a Resource for Transformative Innovation Policy: The Case of Extractive Industries in Colombia - Ernesto Andrade-Sastoque, University of Twente; Gonzalo Ordonez-Matamoros, Universidad Externado de Colombia; Stefan Kuhlmann, University of Twente

Session Organizers

• Alexander Wentland, Technical University of Munich

• Luise M Ruge, TU München

• Sebastian Michael Pfotenhauer, Technical University Munich