This seed panel critically seeks to provide a platform to present new (ideas for) research to critically examine the developmental impacts of frugal innovation. We invite scholars and practitioners to submit for example work in progress on assessing the quantity and quality of employment generated through frugal innovations, on the environmental impacts, on the role of solidarity in grass-root innovations and on the legitimacy of frugal innovations developed by local and international companies. Moreover, we also invite meso- and macro-level conceptual and empirical contributions that critically reflect upon accumulation trajectories, economic transformation, and the governance and political economy of frugal innovations.
This seed panel is part of the The European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) conference 2021, hosted by the EADI Working Group: Frugal Innovation and Development and convened by Peter Knorringa and Elsie Onsongo.
The central theme of the EADI conference is 'Solidarity, Peace and Social Justice'. Together, these three concepts represent the organization's aspirations for approaches to global development that address inequality, poverty and political marginalization, also in connection with climate change and other environmental threats.
Solidarity is essential for any process of social change. Based on mutually shared interests and human values, solidarity can be extremely powerful yet can also be easily undermined in an era of fake news and (electronically) manipulated elections. Peace and social justice are similarly important values in (as well as aspired outcomes of) struggles or transformation processes in which solidarity is key.
The conference will be hosted by the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), one of Europe’s oldest and largest centres for research and education in the field of development studies. It will be combined with the Development Dialogue, the annual European conference of PhD candidates working in development studies.
Register here for the conference
