Innovation agenda for South Africa in the 21st century : towards an alternative inclusive and integrative model

Abstract

The founding documents for a new, democratic South Africa adopted a more inclusive and people-driven approach to innovation. The literature and policy analysis reveals a „shift‟ away from this approach to a more market-driven, exclusivist approach to innovation. R&D (research and development) and technology-driven innovation had been institutionalised at the expense of social, cultural and indigenous innovations. This „shift‟ limits the potential of innovation to benefit a wider segment of society. The absence of a „model‟ of innovation that exploits the strengths of all forms of innovation runs the risk of defeating the normative intentions of the founding innovation policies of the new, post-Apartheid and democratic South Africa. The OECD, from which South Africa „inherited‟ its notion of innovation, acknowledges the shortcomings of the technological innovation and calls for a conceptual framework that will address the shortcomings of the dominant, exclusivist notion of innovation. This inquiry was conducted to investigate an appropriate conceptual framework of innovation that would contribute towards achieving normative policy intentions of post-Apartheid South Africa. It employed a grounded theory design that used semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, document analysis, observations and cooperative inquiry. The data analysed suggest the following propositions: 1. Thesis 1: Innovation is constrained by the dominant science and technology paradigm. 2. Thesis 2: Inclusive and integrative innovation cannot exist within an exclusivist innovation paradigm. 3. Thesis 3: Transforming an exclusivist paradigm into an inclusivist paradigm requires change at constitutive level and not just at regulatory level.4. Thesis 4: Synthesising an inclusive and integrative innovation requires creativity, open dialogue and imagination. Against the above propositions, this thesis recommends a conceptual framework that is underpinned by an inclusive and integrative paradigm. Such a framework proposes transformative actions that have potential to achieve normative policy intentions of post-Apartheid South Africa. Further research into a constitutive design for an inclusive and integrative innovation policies and practices is recommended.