Innovation taken into our own hands: autonomy, technology and development in grassroots innovation

Adrian Smith and Mariano Fressoli

Chapter 5 in A Research Agenda for Innovation and Development, 2026, pp 63-78 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Grassroots innovation is a diverse set of collaborative activities in which networks of activists, neighbours, community groups and social entrepreneurs create bottom-up solutions for sustainable developments that respond to their local situation and reflect the interests and aspirations of the communities involved. Research has learnt much about the practices and outcomes of grassroots innovation in diverse contexts; the processes and potential for exercising wider influence in development; the sustainability and durability of grassroots innovation; and the wider societal forces that propel and shape grassroots innovation. This chapter focuses on a fundamental feature that tends to be overlooked, which is the pursuit of autonomy in grassroots innovation through its expression of self-generated activity, collective responsibility, and control from the bottom upwards. The chapter analyses the contradictions grassroots innovation faces in its relations with state and market institutions and how these are productive for the neglected goal of autonomy in development.

Keywords: Grassroots Innovation; Autonomy; Commons-Based Peer-Production; Appropriate Technology; Self-Reliance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035344338
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