Tech hubs, innovation and development

ABSTRACT

This paper critically discusses of the relationship between innovation and development by presenting a case of a Technology and Innovation Hub. It draws upon the capability approach by Amartya Sen to understand the implications of tech hubs in development. We argue that tech hubs, as collaborative spaces, may contribute to human-centered development processes in ways not directly linked to employment or market-based products. This advances a human-centered view of development which focuses on aspects of well-being and agency that people have reason to value. Conceptually, the paper proposes an understanding of innovation for development as (often unequal) social processes which might contribute to human development if and when the people involved perceive value in the processes, and these values include improving their own communities and society.

KEYWORDS:

• Innovation
• development
• tech hubs
• capability approach

Acknowledgements

This research was carried out with the aid of a full PhD Scholarship from Royal Holloway University of London, UK.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Andrea Jiménez is currently in the 4th year of her PhD at the School of Management at the Royal Holloway University of London, finishing in September 2017. She holds a Masters in Sustainable Development, with a focus on social innovation and ICTs for Development. As part of her PhD, Andrea has been conducting in-depth qualitative research on technology and innovation hubs since 2012, focusing on the innovation processes happening within hubs in both the Global North and Global South.

Dr. Yingqin Zheng is Senior Lecturer at the School of Management, Royal Holloway University of London. She obtained her doctorate from Judge Business School, University of Cambridge as a Gates Scholar. Her research is related to the implications of digital technologies in organisations and societies, with a strong focus on ICT for Development. She is particularly interested in exploring the complex role of digital technologies in inequality, marginality and collective action.

ORCID

Yingqin Zheng http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7986-0112

Notes

1 http://qz.com/502149/video-ory-okolloh-explains-why-africa-cant-entrepreneur-itself-out-of-its-basic-problems/.

2 In this paper, we adopt the terminology of Global North and Global South, rather than developed and developing countries. From a human development perspective, all countries are “developing.” The Global North/South terminologies are more prevalent in the development literature.

3 Groups are understood as “ways of categorising people in ways that represent common affiliations or identities” (Stewart, 2004, p. 2).