Global systems of innovation: Water supply and sanitation

Cozzens, Susan E.; Catalán, Pablo

Title:

Global systems of innovation: Water supply and sanitation

dc.contributor.author	Cozzens, Susan E.	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Catalán, Pablo	en_US
dc.contributor.corporatename	Georgia Institute of Technology. Technology Policy and Assessment Center	en_US
dc.date.accessioned	2010-11-09T14:43:52Z
dc.date.available	2010-11-09T14:43:52Z
dc.date.issued	2008-09
dc.description	Presented at the GLOBELICS 6th International Conference 2008 22-24 September, Mexico City, Mexico.	en_US
dc.description.abstract	Innovation is a process of problem solving. In its broadest sense, innovation means doing things in new ways. When conditions change and routines no longer work, humans experiment and learn. In a narrower sense, innovation means developing new ideas into new products or processes. Whether the process happens in the public domain or in the market, the sign of successful innovation is something new being used widely to solve a problem. Many problems that face humanity today take on global dimensions, and their solutions are likely to involve cooperation as well as competition across national boundaries. Global climate change is the clearest example: human activity has set changes into motion that affect people in various parts of the world in ways that they did not choose but have to work together to address. Disease is another example, in which growing networks of transportation are spreading pathogens faster and wider than ever. No one country can protect its health without joint information gathering and international public health efforts. To address global challenges, humanity needs to be able to solve problems at global scale. In our research, we aim to deepen understanding of one form of global problem-solving, namely, global systems of innovation. A global system of innovation (GSI) is a learning space (Arocena and Sutz 2000) in which a multi-level network of diverse actors interacts to address a world-level challenge, accumulating knowledge across national borders and developing, testing, and adopting new approaches. This paper helps to develop the GSI concept using information on responses to global challenges in the household water supply and sanitation sector (WSS). In this research, we use a broad concept of innovation that encompasses both new technologies and new approaches, such as community-demand driven systems and privatization. The paper reports preliminary observations based on interviews with nearly 100 people who work in organizations in the sector, at global, national, and local levels, including intensive interviews in Costa Rica, Mozambique, and South Africa. In addition, we have analyzed the published literature in this area and consulted an extensive set of documentary sources. The first section of the paper introduces the concept of a global system of innovation. The second section describes how preliminary data from the WSS sector match or modify the GSI concept. The final section raises further research questions and points to possible policy implications.	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/1853/35858
dc.language.iso	en_US	en_US
dc.publisher	Georgia Institute of Technology	en_US
dc.relation.ispartofseries	GLOBELICS06. Innovation and Sustainable Systems: Regulations and new technologies	en_US
dc.subject	Water supply	en_US
dc.subject	Sanitation	en_US
dc.subject	Global innovation	en_US
dc.title	Global systems of innovation: Water supply and sanitation	en_US
dc.type	Text
dc.type.genre	Proceedings
dspace.entity.type	Publication
local.contributor.author	Cozzens, Susan E.
local.contributor.corporatename	School of Public Policy
local.contributor.corporatename	Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts
local.relation.ispartofseries	Globelics Conference
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