Stronger together: inclusive innovation and undone science frameworks in the Global South

Abstract

Over the past two decades, scholars have developed undone science and inclusive innovation to explain knowledge silos, technology and development for marginalised communities. The undone science framework describes the systematic neglect of scientific issues that impact marginalised groups. The inclusive innovation framework emphasises the need to produce innovations that directly benefit marginalised groups. Despite the similar goals of the frameworks, the undone science and inclusive innovation theoretical communities have not interacted with each other, and as a result, the insights from each framework fail to help other disciplines improve opportunities for marginalised groups. This article compares the frameworks by examining nanotechnology policy and research in South Africa and shows how the frameworks help create better policies for marginalised groups. Because the frameworks emphasise different issues, policymakers should use both frameworks as opposed to over-relying on one of them.

KEYWORDS:

• poverty
• inequality
• inclusive innovation
• undone science
• science and technology policy
• international development

Acknowledgements

Both authors thank David J. Hess for his comments on an early draft.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Logan Williams thanks NSF DDIG 1153308 and the CAORC Multi-country Fellowship, for the funding that allowed her to collect the data about Aurolab. Thomas Woodson thanks the National Science Foundation (grant number 1659657) for data collection about nanotechnology in the Global South.