Engaging scientists through institutional histories

An institutional history is a narrative that records key points about how institutional arrangements – new ways of working – evolve over time creating more effective ways to achieve goals. It can be used to document institutional innovations in projects and to highlight barriers to change. An institutional history draws out and synthesizes lessons for research organizations and partners as well as for others in similar circumstances

Innovating at the margins: the System of Rice Intensification in India and transformative social innovation

I explore transformative social innovation in agriculture through a particular case of agroecological innovation, the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in India. Insights from social innovation theory that emphasize the roles of social movements and the reengagement of vulnerable populations in societal transformation can help reinstate the missing "social" dimension in current discourses on innovation in India. India has a rich and vibrant tradition of social innovation wherein vulnerable communities have engaged in collective experimentation. This is often missed in official or formal accounts. Social innovations such as SRI can help recreate these possibilities for change from outside the mainstream due to newer opportunities that networks present in the twenty-first century. I show how local and international networks led by Civil Society Organizations have reinterpreted and reconstructed game-changing macrotrends in agriculture. This has enabled the articulation and translation of an alternative paradigm for sustainable transitions within agriculture from outside formal research channels. These social innovations, however, encounter stiff opposition from established actors in agricultural research systems. Newer heterogeneous networks, as witnessed in SRI, provide opportunities for researchers within hierarchical research systems to explore, experiment, and create newer norms of engagement with Civil Society Organizations and farmers. I emphasize valuing and embedding diversity of practices and institutions at an early stage to enable systems to be more resilient and adaptable in sustainable transitions

Innovative Indo-US Collaborations – Missed Opportunities

This paper analyzes the situation of the Indo US Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture, by using the science studies approach.Indo-US, agriculture, initiative, community practices, collaborations, agricultural research, nations, farmer, farmer's death, learning organizations,

System of Rice Intensification in India: Innovation History and Institutional Challenges

This report documents the history of the systems of rice intensification (SRI, for short) in India in the last few years and presents some of the institutional changes and challenges that SRI throws up. The first part looks at the complex and continuing evolution of SRI in India and presents SRI as an innovation in process and not as a completed product. Farmers and other actors are continuously shaping it through their practice. Part II focuses on insights of the innovation systems framework looking closely at the nature and quality of linkages of the various actors. The concluding section hightlights the implications for pro-poor innovation.systems of rice intensification, SRI, innovation, institutional changes, pro-poor innovation, rice cultivation, Agriculture, Economics, Sociology, Science and Technology Studies

Assessing SRI as a process: evidence from India

Research highlight based on a paper titled ?Understanding scientific controversies: The case of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI).

Engaging Scientists Through Institutional Histories

An institutional history is a narrative that records key points about how institutional arrangements – new ways of working – evolve over time creating more effective ways to achieve goals. It can be used to document institutional innovations in projects and to highlight barriers to change. An institutional history draws out and synthesizes lessons for research organizations and partners as well as for others in similar circumstances.innovation, institutional, history, research, Agricultural and Food Policy, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

The Introduction of SRI in Uttarakhand, India

Cet article discute les représentations du système de riziculture intensive (SRI) – un ensemble de principes agronomiques promus comme méthode de riziculture durable – vis-à-vis de trois notions clés du développement agricole: rendements, durabilité et adoption par les agriculteurs. Nous soutenons que c’est par le biais d’affirmations exagérées (qu’elles soient positives ou négatives) sur le lien entre SRI et ces trois notions, que le SRI a acquis des attributs mythologiques. Contrairement à l’interprétation populaire qui voit dans les mythes « des fausses croyances », nous adoptons une perspective anthropologique sur les mythes en les conceptualisant comme des récits qui créent du sens et motivent l’action. C’est par ces récits que le SRI a été associé à des discours dominant le secteur du développement sur la sécurité alimentaire et l’agriculture durable et, ce faisant, passant sous silence les processus complexes qui déterminent les pratiques rizicoles et réduisant le SRI à une solution technopolitique. Nous soutenons que ces visions restrictives du SRI (et des technologies en général) contribuent à l’écart entre les mondes de la science et de la politique, d’une part, et les réalités des agriculteurs, d’autre part. À l’aide d’une étude de cas sur les changements dans les pratiques d’ensemencement et de transplantation de cultivateurs de riz dans le nord de l’Inde, nous montrons que les agriculteurs utilisent aussi des récits mythologiques, mais de manière beaucoup moins contraignante. Les récits de développement en tant que mythes (au sens anthropologique) peuvent aider leurs communautés à faire face au changement, sans qu’ils soient basés sur des solutions prédéfinies.This paper situates representations of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) – a set of agronomic principles promoted as a method for sustainable rice cultivation – in the context of three key values in agricultural development: high yields, sustainable agriculture and widespread adoption by farmers. We argue that overstated claims in relation to these values, positively by promoters and negatively by critics, endowed SRI with mythological attributes. In contrast to a popular understanding of myths as false beliefs, we adopt an anthropological perspective on myths as narratives that create meaning and motivate action. The mythological associations of SRI have connected it to overarching development narratives about food security and sustainable agriculture, which implicitly reduce the complex and intricate processes of rice cultivation using SRI techniques to a neat, technopolitical fix. We argue that these simplistic framings of SRI (and technology more generally) contribute to the gap between the worlds of science and policy on one hand and farmers’ realities on the other. Using a case study of changes in the seeding and transplanting practices of rice cultivators in northern India, we show that farmers also use mythological narratives but in a far less constraining manner. Development narratives as myths (in the anthropological sense) can guide people and their communities in dealing with change without determining clear-cut solutions in advance