Speakers: Mr Kgabo Ramoroka & Ms Alex Mhula-Links, EPD, HSRC
Chair: Dr Peter Jacobs, EPD, HSRC
Date: Thursday, 30 April
Time: 12:30 – 14:00
Venue: VCRs, Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban
The HSRC seminar series is funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST). The views and opinions expressed therein as well as findings and statements of the seminar series do not necessarily represent the views of DST.
Innovative farming techniques and practices are changing agricultural production and rural landscapes. The varied ways in which STI have been transforming rural livelihoods strategies is central to rural innovation systems.
Commentators are increasingly concerned with one main question: where do the rural poor fit into local and national innovation systems? They also often wonder: What benefits do poor people living and working in rural areas capture from rural innovation activities?
Grappling with the societal benefits or social dynamics of innovation require a step beyond technological innovations. Using a wider lense of innovation and drawing on new evidence from the Rural Innovation Assessment Toolbox [RIAT] we explore patterns of rural innovation systems. What is ‘non-formal’ innovation and how does it relate to formal innovation? How do actor networks influence the ways in which new knowledge and practices promote or sustain local rural development? We illustrate answers to these tough questions with examples ranging from a peanut-harvesting machine to an innovative silk producing initiative in a poor rural community.
[NOTE: We invite participants to critically discuss insights from two new articles published in the African Journal of Science Technology and Innovation for Development [AJSTID]. Both articles are outputs of a DST-funded initiative, the Rural Innovation Assessment Toolbox [RIAT].
The seminar may be attended in Pretoria, Cape Town or Durban
RSVP by 29 April
Cape Town: Carmen August (021) 466 7827, caugust@hsrc.ac.za 12th Floor, Plein Park Building, Plein Street, Cape Town
Durban: Ridhwaan Khan (031) 242 5400, rkhan@hsrc.ac.za 1st Floor, 750 Francois Road, Ntuthuko Junction, Pods 5 and 6, Cato Manor
Pretoria: Arlene Grossberg (012) 302 2811, acgrossberg@hsrc.ac.za 1st Floor, HSRC Building, 134 Pretorius Street, Pretoria