Grassroots Innovation : Discourse, Policy and Practice in the Global South

This book explores the process of grassroots innovation in the context of the Global South. It explains why these bottom-up solutions developed by common people are generated due to a lack of available or affordable technology to meet their needs and how they are included in the mainstream imagination of the economy by studying these innovations in India. It analyses the grassroots innovation process from idea generation to its implementation.

Detailing both theoretical and practical dimensions of grassroots innovation, the book provides a holistic understanding of the phenomenon by tracing its history in the pre-independence discourse on development to the present-day policies for institutionalizing these innovations in the mainstream. It will provide the readers with a bottom-up commentary on innovation and development in the context of the Global South in general and India in particular. It adopts a qualitative research design with a wide range of data collected through interviews, participant observations, and field notes. The book contains seven chapters to describe the discourse, policy perspectives, and current practice of grassroots innovations in general.

The interdisciplinary, timely book provides thoughtful analysis for scholars and upper-level students in the fields of technology and innovation management, development studies, and public management.