Description
Book SynopsisThis is an original and very well structured and informative book. Its particular interest stems from the multidimensional and detailed analysis of a set of core technologies and their uneven diffusion process in eight countries of quite different levels of development. It challenges received ideas about what really matters to democratize the access to new technologies and provides evidence-based suggestions for policy design. Scholars and students interested in the technological side of inequality will read this book with delight.'
- Judith Sutz, Universidad de la República, Uruguay
Inequality is one of the main features of globalization. Do emerging technologies, as they spread around the world, contribute to more inequality or less? This unique interdisciplinary text examines the relationships between emerging technologies and social, economic and other forms of inequality.
Susan Cozzens, Dhanaraj Thakur, and the other co-authors ask how the benefits and costs of emerging technologies are distributed amongst different countries - some rich and some poor. Examining the case studies of five technologies across eight countries in Africa, Europe and the Americas, the book finds that the distributional dynamics around a given technology are influenced by the way entrepreneurs and others package the technology, how governments promote it and the existing local skills and capacity to use it. These factors create social and economic boundaries where the technology stops diffusing between and within countries. The book presents a series of recommendations for policy-makers and private sector actors to move emerging technologies beyond these boundaries and improve their distributional outcomes.
Offering a broad range of mature and relatively new emerging technologies from a diverse set of countries, the study will strongly appeal to policy-makers in science, technology and innovation policy. It will also benefit students and academics interested in innovation, science, technology and innovation policy, the economics of innovation, as well as the history and sociology of technology.
Contributors: B. Beckert, I. Bortagaray, L. Brito, R. Brouwer, S. Cozzens, M.P.Falcão, S.D. Gatchair, J.A. Holbrook, L.A. Pace, D. Thakur
Trade Review‘Public Policy expert Susan Cozzens and political scientist Dhanarj Thakur examine the relationship between emerging technologies and inequality in this edited work, while reporting the results of comparative case studies tracing the costs and benefits of recombinant insulin, genetically modified corn, mobile phones, open-source software, and plant tissue culture on the economic well-being of eight nations across three continents. . . . Innovation and Inequality: Emerging Technologies in an Unequal World contributes worthwhile information to a growing field of study.’ -- Samuel B. Hoff, International Social Science Review
'. . . this book is improving the lexicon of innovation so that policymakers and scholars alike begin to speak, the think, and to study this process with greater sensibility towards its distributive impacts.' -- Walter D. Valdivia, TechTank
‘This is an original and very well structured and informative book. Its particular interest stems from the multidimensional and detailed analysis of a set of core technologies and their uneven diffusion process in eight countries of quite different levels of development. It challenges received ideas about what really matters to democratize the access to new technologies and provides evidence-based suggestions for policy design. Scholars and students interested in the technological side of inequality will read this book with delight.’ -- Judith Sutz, Universidad de la República, Uruguay
‘This book will be valuable to scholars, students, and policymakers concerned with maximizing the benefits of new technologies and extending their distributional boundaries to reduce inequality.’ -- Eric Anderson, Science & Public Policy
Table of ContentsContents: Innovation and Inequality: Emerging Technologies in an Unequal World PART I: INTRODUCTIONS 1. Problem and Concepts Susan Cozzens and Dhanaraj Thakur 2. An Introduction to the Case Study Countries Dhanaraj Thakur and Susan Cozzens PART II: TECHNOLOGIES 3. Uneven Publics: Life, Death, and Recombinant Insulin Sonia D. Gatchair, Isabel Bortagaray, Lidia Brito and Roland Brouwer 4. Strong Champions, Strong Regulations: The Unexpected Boundaries of Genetically Modified Corn Sonia D. Gatchair, Isabel Bortagaray and Lisa A. Pace 5. Chain of Champions: Global Inequalities and Mobile Phones Dhanaraj Thakur, Bernd Beckert, Isabel Bortagaray, Roland Brouwer and Lídia Brito 6. Turning Technology on its Head: The Distributional Dynamics of Open-Source Software Dhanaraj Thakur, Bernd Beckert, Isabel Bortagaray, Roland Brouwer, Mário P. Falcão and Lídia Brito 7. Open Source Biotechnology: Plant Tissue Culture and the Growth of Opportunity Isabel Bortagaray, Lídia Brito, Roland Brouwer, Susan Cozzens, Mario P. Falcão and Sonia D. Gatchair PART III: COUNTRIES 8. Emerging Technologies in Argentina: Access and Distributional Consequences Isabel Bortagaray 9. Emerging Technologies and Low Inequality: Policy Implications for Canada Dhanaraj Thakur and J. Adam Holbrook 10. Distributive Paths of Emerging Technologies in Costa Rica Isabel Bortagaray 11. Policy Options for an Equitable Distribution of Technological Benefits in Jamaica Sonia D. Gatchair 12. Distributional Effects of Emerging Technologies in Germany: Analysis Based on Two Case Studies Bernd Beckert 13. The Diffusion of Emerging Technologies in a Micro-Economy: Implications for Malta Lisa A. Pace 14. Policies for Technological Innovation with Equity: The Case of Mozambique Roland Brouwer and Lídia Brito 15. Earning Less and Buying More: Emerging Technologies and United States Society Susan Cozzens PART IV: LESSONS LEARNED 16. Discussion and Conclusions Susan Cozzens and Dhanaraj Thakur Index
