Abstract
Innovation systems (IS) are taken to be coherent and consistent narratives or discourses. This chapter uses the Group/Grid or Cultural Theory (CT) to distinguish four competing IS narratives, each with their own theory of change, criterion variables, strategies, pathways of innovation and designs for innovation platforms (IP): 1. The business model of agronomy (BMA), based on the methodological individualism of the diffusion of innovations and ‘agricultural treadmill’ paradigms and focusing on technology development to raise yields.
2. Package and value chain approaches that seek to enable individual entrepreneurship through access to services, inputs, credit and markets and other institutions that reduce transaction costs. 3. Promotion of rules and regulations (hierarchical institutions) to constrain the pursuit of individual interests for some public goods (governance, control of corruption, sustainable use of natural resources). 4. Egalitarian approaches that seek to empower, emancipate, strengthen civil society and enhance social capital. This framework proves useful for analysing the history of agricultural development in Industrial countries and sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to point to ways forward for inclusive approaches to mobilize the vast productive resources under smallholder management in Africa.
2. Package and value chain approaches that seek to enable individual entrepreneurship through access to services, inputs, credit and markets and other institutions that reduce transaction costs. 3. Promotion of rules and regulations (hierarchical institutions) to constrain the pursuit of individual interests for some public goods (governance, control of corruption, sustainable use of natural resources). 4. Egalitarian approaches that seek to empower, emancipate, strengthen civil society and enhance social capital. This framework proves useful for analysing the history of agricultural development in Industrial countries and sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to point to ways forward for inclusive approaches to mobilize the vast productive resources under smallholder management in Africa.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Food, Agriculture and Social Change: The Everyday Vitality of Latin America |
Editors | Stephen Sherwood, Alberto Arce, Myriam Paredes |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 198-210 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781315440088 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781138214972 |
Publication status | Published - 2017 |