Organizational Unit:
School of Public Policy

Permanent Link
https://hdl.handle.net/1853/70716
Research Organization Registry ID
Description
Previous Names
Parent Organization
Parent Organization
Includes Organization(s)
ArchiveSpace Name Record
https://finding-aids.library.gatech.edu/agents/corporate_entities/1033

Filters

2009 2
2
2
2
Reset filters

Settings
Author: Cozzens, Susan E. × Has files: No ×

Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Distributive 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.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Biotechnology 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, Sonia
    GM 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.