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ItemDistributive paths and channels of emerging technologies in developing countries: What can we learn from biotechnology and ICTs in Argentina and Costa Rica?(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-10-07) Bortagaray, Isabel ; Cozzens, Susan E.This paper analyzes the paths of emerging technologies in developing countries, particularly considering its distributive dimension along the chain of functions, from knowledge production, to the technology’s production/provision, its incorporation into the productive system, and to its more generalized access and use. Two contrasting countries, Argentina and Costa Rica, set the context of study of these paths, the different conditions through which they make their way across sectors and actors, their functions and roles, and the type of distributive channels involved. The analysis of the distributive patterns of emerging technologies must include at least two intertwined levels: at the level of knowledge production, diffusion and access, and the second related to technology’s diffusion-commercialization, access and use. The twofold analysis involve a common emphasis on the identification and analysis of who produces/gets what, how and when, and on the channels of distribution that contribute (or not) to the breadth and depth of the technology. More in particularly, it considers those policies, organizations and/or institutions that substantially influence/shape the way in which the technology penetrates society. In some cases these have to do with establishing channels for bridging knowledge production and use, while in others their contribution is towards the expansion of technological access and appropriation. It also looks at the different roles of policies along each phase of the technology. This paper argues that at the level of knowledge production, public research organizations (national and/or international) are fundamental for catalyzing the expansion of the distributive path, in spite of differences and peculiarities of the technologies. Yet at the level of the distribution of the technology, this role is not always embraced by a specific actor or by policies, in which cases distributive paths are interrupted, and pockets of population remain outside from the technology’s path. It directly results from a large research project, RESULTAR2, oriented to study the distributive consequences of emerging technologies in five countries of the Americas (Argentina, Canada, Costa Rica, Jamaica and United States), and concentrated on two sets of emerging technologies: biotechnologies (GM, tissue culture, and recombinant insulin) and ICTs (Open source software and Mobile Phones). Moreover, RESULTAR attempts to: “(1) describe the dynamics that link emerging technologies to patterns of inequality; (2) identify the roles of public interventions in those dynamics; and (3) develop a framework that policy actors can use prospectively to analyze the distributional valence of a specific new technology in a particular national context.”3. This paper takes some distance from the focus on outcomes to concentrate on the paths of these technologies across the population, focusing on the mechanisms and channels through which they are accessed and utilized. In particular it draws on 40 indepth interviews conducted to a wide range of actors, including researchers, policymakers, technology users, NGOs, and productive actors related to the five technologies in the two countries.
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ItemDistributive Paths and Channels of Emerging Technologies in Developing Countries: What Can We Learn from Biotechnology and ICTs in Argentina and Costa Rica?(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-10-03) Bortagaray, Isabel ; Cozzens, Susan E.This paper analyzes the paths of emerging technologies in developing countries, particularly considering its distributive dimension along the chain of functions, from knowledge production, to the technology's production/provision, its incorporation into the productive system, and to its more generalized access and use. Two contrasting countries, Argentina and Costa Rica, set the context of study of these paths, the different conditions through which they make their way across sectors and actors, their functions and roles, and the type of distributive channels involved. The analysis of the distributive patterns of emerging technologies must include at least two intertwined levels: at the level of knowledge production, diffusion and access, and the second related to technology's diffusion-commercialization, access and use. The twofold analysis involve a common emphasis on the identification and analysis of who produces/gets what, how and when, and on the channels of distribution that contribute (or not) to the breadth and depth of the technology. More in particularly, it considers those policies, organizations and/or institutions that substantially influence/shape the way in which the technology penetrates society. In some cases these have to do with providing channels for bridging the knowledge production and use, while in others they contribute with the expansion of technological access and appropriation. It also looks at the different roles of policies along each phase of the technology. This paper argues that at the level of knowledge production, public research organizations (national and/or international) are fundamental for catalyzing the expansion of the distributive path, in spite of differences and peculiarities of the technologies. Yet at the level of the distribution of the technology, this role is not always embraced by a specific actor or by policies, in which cases distributive paths are interrupted, and pockets of population remain outside from the technology's path. This study directly results from a large research project, RESULTAR , oriented to study the distributive consequences of emerging technologies in five countries of the Americas (Argentina, Canada, Costa Rica, Jamaica and United States), and concentrated on two sets of emerging technologies: biotechnologies (GM, tissue culture, and recombinant insulin) and ICTs (Open source software and Mobile Phones). Moreover, RESULTAR attempts to: "(1) describe the dynamics that link emerging technologies to patterns of inequality; (2) identify the roles of public interventions in those dynamics; and (3) develop a framework that policy actors can use prospectively to analyze the distributional valence of a specific new technology in a particular national context." This paper in particular draws on 40 in-depth interviews conducted to a wide range of actors, including researchers, policy-makers, technology users, NGOs, and productive actors related to the five technologies in the two countries.
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ItemBiotechnology Paths in Developing Countries: Analyzing GM in Costa Rica and Jamaica and Learning from Plant Tissue Culture(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-10-03) Bortagaray, Isabel ; Cozzens, Susan E. ; Gatchair, SoniaGM biotechnology has been hailed as one of the most significant advancements in agriculture since the green revolution with the potential to reduce hunger and deprivation in the world's poorest countries and contribute to continuing advances in the developed countries. While a few countries appear to be reaping the promised benefits, more than twenty years after the first introduction of commercial genetically modified crops, most developing countries have not engaged in widespread adoption. Agricultural biotechnology has failed to deliver its promise of revolutionizing food production in poor countries. Although the number of crops and transgenic events approved for cultivation in the developed world continues to increase, developing countries lag behind in approvals for commercial GM crop cultivation. Developing countries that have led the way in the approval process include the Philippines, South Africa, Argentina, Mexico, and Uruguay. Many of the countries at the forefront of adoption have large scale commercial activities where concerns about productivity and profitability are likely to figure prominently. Commercial production appears stymied not by the lack of research as over 50 crops have been transformed in 16 developing countries, but by the high cost and slow pace of regulatory approvals (Sairam & Prakash, 2005). Other explanations for the low level of adoption in developing countries include rejection of GM crops by important trading partners; lack of absorptive capacity for basic and applied research; and environmental implications (J. I. Cohen & Paarlberg, 2004; Paarlberg, 2002). Developing countries, when putting in place appropriate regulatory frameworks have to contend with the task of balancing mixed signals from the political and scientific communities in developed countries, inadequate capacity and resources, national sentiment and needs. This paper takes a systematic look at agricultural biotechnology, in particular GM crop cultivation in two small developing countries, Costa Rica and Jamaica in an effort to identify the conditions in which the technology has emerged in the country, both in terms of the knowledge production, and its introduction into the productive system. It examines the countries' science, technology and innovation systems, institutional and trade arrangements as well as historical and cultural factors within the national contexts in an attempt to identify factors that impede or facilitate the adoption of the technology. It attempts to identify specific policies that could be adopted to make better use of the technology. Furthermore, the study of GM in Costa Rica and Jamaica is contrasted with the introduction of an older biotechnology that is more widely adopted and utilized in developed countries, as it is the case of tissue culture. We analyze the conditions in which tissue culture has been incorporated, with the focus on banana, a very relevant crop in the economy of both countries. The aim is to take the experience and trajectory of tissue culture and use it as a yardstick, and as a learning tool, given its older condition, in spite of the enormous differences surrounding both biotechnologies at different levels, i.e., technological, cultural, regulatory, costs, markets, etc. This paper draws on extensive interviews and reviews of secondary data, including reports and other documents that allow us to trace the biotechnology path in the two countries. The two countries were chosen because of their similarity and concerted efforts to make use of STI policies in social and economic development, yet these efforts have met with only limited (mixed) success. The study results from a larger research project on distributional consequences of emerging technologies, Resultar, coordinated by Susan Cozzens at the School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology.
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ItemThe interactions between emerging technologies and institutional environments in developing countries: The case of GM maize in Argentina(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008-09) Bortagaray, Isabel ; Cozzens, Susan E.This work is aimed at advancing the understanding of the interactions and dynamics between emerging technologies, and the institutional environments in national settings. Interactions and coevolution of technologies and institutions are fundamental drivers of social change (Nelson 1994a), and this is particularly the triggering question for this analysis. How and up to what extent have the institutional environments co-evolved with the emergence of agricultural genetic engineering within specific national settings? What types of interacting paths have they shaped, what actors have been involved and in what roles, and what have been the outcomes of these processes in terms of production, utilization, appropriation and commercialization of the technology? Furthermore it aims at tracing and tracking back and forth the connections and disconnections between institutional and technological change, and ultimately identifying and analyzing the outcomes of these processes and the role of policy in terms of who gets what, when and how3. These interactions are analyzed in the context of agricultural genetic engineering in the second country with GM planted area, with a tradition of crises and where policy environments “functionality and responsiveness are often at odds with innovation and change, and policy anticipation might be weak. This paper reviews this relationship in the context of an emerging technology such as agricultural GE in Argentina. At the institutional end, it traces the “critical junctures” as indicators of institutional innovation, and feedback effects, as indicators of their reproduction (Thelen 2003). The focus on the institutional environment refers to policy objectives, policy instruments and agendas, the timing of the interventions, and the regulatory framework. At the technological end, it traces the specific context of introduction of the technology, its production and utilization, the related set of capabilities developed, and the actors involved. The links and gaps between these two are analyzed, connecting the dots, tracing the trajectories and signaling the missing links, problems and bottlenecks over time. At the broader level, this analysis intends to contribute with the discussion on the systemic character of innovations, focusing on the interaction mechanisms between technologies and institutions and a more precise understanding of the structure of these interactions, and the causal mechanisms supporting differential patterns of change. This study fundamentally draws on work conducted in the context of the RESULTAR4 research project, on the distributional consequences of emerging technologies. In depth interviews were conducted in Argentina in November 2007, and were complemented with government reports, bills and regulatory documents, and academic articles, among others.
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ItemConsequences of high-technology economic development for African Americans in Georgia, 1990-2000(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004-04-30) Cozzens, Susan E. ; Gatchair, Sonia ; Bortagaray, Isabel ; Ordonez, Gonzalo