64. Inclusivity and Marginalization Within Innovation Processes
Juan Carlos García Cruz, Cátedras CONACYT/ UAM Xochimilco; Cristian Puga González, Arizona State University
Posted: February 28, 2022 Accepted Languages: English/Inglés/Inglês, Spanish/Español/Espanhol, Portuguese/Portugués
In the last two decades, there have been a variety of proposals to design and promote inclusivity in scientific and technological innovation projects in Latin America. Enduring public policies and institutions regarding inclusivity goals, however, have been rather exceptional in the region. On this subject, there is a clear contrast regarding other countries and regions in which there is an increasing interest and organized efforts to integrate social and ethical issues at innovation processes and their different stages (e. g. “Horizon 2020” in Europe or the “XXI Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act” in the United States).
Arguably, such shortage in Latina America is due—at least in part—to the vagueness of the goals and tools concerning inclusivity: there are fundamental lacunas in political agendas and processes with respect to the social appropriation of science, technology, and innovations within these latter. To be specific, these lacunas can be found in the possible utility of the synergetic changes between technologies and their users (who have the potential to produce and make use of meaningful changes in technologies) and in knowledge mobilization within research groups and outwards (these groups could not only provide contributions within the scientific community but to society in general).
Precisely, we propose this panel to encourage reflections and discussions (both, theoretical and, or empirical) on integration methods (or any other tools) that may serve to investigate and to possibly ameliorate the issue of inclusivity at both the macro (e.g. policies and institutions) and the micro (e.g. laboratory floors) stages of innovation processes. For instance, the Sociotechnical Integration Research (STIR) protocol has shown promising results. However, the panel is open to any proposals approaching how to render science and technology more inclusive. Therefore, we alike welcome normative discussions on groups that have been marginalized from science and technology innovation processes (e.g. indigen groups) and what may be done to rectify this issue not only in Latin America but in any other country or region.
