Grassroots innovations for sustainability: a perspective from the UK

Adrian SmithSPRU (Science & Technology Policy Research), University of Sussex

International Seminar on Innovation, Sustainability and Development

New Delhi

28-30 June 2011

Aim

1. Grassroots innovations for sustainability in the UK

2. The approach we are developing – niche spaces in context

… business models

… exchange… infrastructure

… research

Examples in the UK ...

… standards and certification

… social values

… technology… organisation

Locating grassroots innovation

Source: John Pearce (2003)

Community development is ‘a movement to promote better

living for the whole community [i.e. outcome], with active

participation and if possible on the initiative of the community

[i.e. process]’ (UN, 1953; italics added)

Source: Walker and Devine-Wright (2008)

Grassroots innovation knowledges

Framings of grassroots innovation Forms of knowledge emphasised

Visionary vanguardPioneering new sustainability economies and societies

- Socio-technical practices under different value systems- Capabilities and resources required- Economic, social and environmental performance and

feasibility under different contexts- Production and maintenance requirements- Advocate and participant perspectives – materiality of

radical sustainability discourses

R&D lab for utopiaNaive R&D lab for utopia – flawed without a political programme for structural change

- Institutional misfit (and their reform)- Lack of infrastructure (and provision - material and social)- Economic (re-)structures, lack of capital and markets- Political context (opposing powers, targets and allies)

Coping strategyThird sector coping for absence of provision through existing market and state processes

- Needs unmet by markets and states- Livelihood conditions and responses- Pragmatic sustainability improvements- Augmentation opportunities for bottom-up solutions

Niche diversityA source of experimental space – diversity in debates and practices for sustainable innovation

- Spaces for socio-technical experimentation and social learning

- Replicable, adaptable and scalable innovations- Manifestation of alternate agendas for innovation policy- Indicators of institutional challenges for sustainability- Empowering by linking to broader social movements

Socio-technical experimentation

Markets

Infrastructure Distribution networks

Appropriate knowledge

Risk strategies

Committed and resourceful participants

Business/organisational models

Social acceptability

Capabilities and skills

Social values

Key technologies

Grassroots innovators align material, institutional and discursive elements into a working (socio-technical) configuration

Idealists and entrepreneurs Institutions (norms and rules)

Capital or grants

GI = technical, organisational, economic, and political work

Prevailing innovation systems are restricted to the grassroots due to interdependent path-dependencies:

Orthodox innovation systems

1. Norms and routines of engineers and developers2. Business models and markets3. Scale and network economies4. Infrastructures for connecting components5. Institutions for regulating and coordinating systems6. Consumer habits and lifestyle aspirations7. Political power and access to decision-making

these systems are under pressure to become more sustainable uncertainties and instabilities inform searches for alternatives

grassroots innovators (and others) exploit the spaces created

Source: Geels and Raven, 2006; Markard and Truffer, 2008

Niche spaces and politics

Niche space

A. Shielding B. NurturingC. Empowering

Formalising grassroots innovation? Intermediaries

Intermediaries have multiple roles:

Support grassroots activity, networks and partnerships Share experience, good practice, expertise and advice

Opening political space – advocacy to policy-makersEthics of innovation failures (and successes)

Time

Prevalence

2. Diffusion into markets transforms niche innovation

5. Niche reaction to mainstreaming

4. Value-laden niches persist

1. A grassroots niche adapted to pioneering settings

Niche dilemmas: conform or transform?

3. Radical sustainability not part of market innovation

6. Re-assertedsustainabilities

Time

Prevalence

2. Diffusion into markets transforms niche innovation

5. Niche reaction to mainstreaming

4. Value-laden niches persist

1. A grassroots niche adapted to pioneering settings

Niche dilemmas: conform or transform?

3. Radical sustainability not part of market innovation

6. Further interactions ...

Fitting

and

conf

orm

ing st

rate

gy

(sus

taina

bility

dim

inish

ed)

Stretching and transforming strategy

(limited influence in absence of empowerment)

Summarising

A niche framing emphasises the spaces where grassroots experiment with deep ‘visions’ for sustainability.

Niche opportunities:

• Create new knowledge and diversity for sustainability

• Re-evaluate socio-technical performance under new criteria

• Obtain resources (e.g. secure grants, nurture markets)

• Explore future potential and new improvement criteria

• Build supportive constituencies and legitimacy

• Press for institutional changes and new political economies

Wider dilemmas:

• Innovation system elites invest different meanings in niche processes and interpret lessons differently

• Grassroots innovators depend upon opportunities beyond their agency – structural dependencies

• Political economies and institutions often prevail – attenuating grassroots influence

• Wider social movements must open up innovation policy agendas further