Measuring social capital and innovation in poor agricultural communities: The case of Cháparra, Peru

In the last decades substantive advance has been made in the measurement and understanding of frontier innovation in highly industrialized settings. However, little research focused on the process of learning and the introduction of novelties in smallholder farming of poor agricultural communities. Considering that 1.5 billion people in developing countries live in such smallholder households this is an essential shortcoming. In addressing three crucial questions about the measurement and promotion of endogenous local development this paper contributes to close this research gap. The three questions are: a) how can we measure social capital and innovation in poor agricultural communities, b) what is the impact of external agents on local structures and c) what are the relations between the social capital and the innovative performance of the farmer. In a first step a comprehensive questionnaire with 89 questions on diverse dimensions of social capital and innovation has been elaborated and applied to the agricultural valley of Cháparra in the South of Peru. The results allow for an indepth analysis of the capabilities, network position and innovative behavior of the farmers. In a second step, we apply social network analysis techniques to analyze the role and position of the relevant actors in the local as well as in the external technical information networks with a special focus on the influence of an external NGO. The analysis reveals a deep structural impact of the NGO and significant correlations between the network position of the farmers and their innovative performance. Three crucial issues for research on smallholder innovation are identified. First, diverse dimensions of social capital and innovation have to be differentiated when studying endogenous development. Second, it has to be assessed to which degree the modification of the existing social structures by external agents can be harmful or beneficial. Third, social network analysis can help us to gain a better understanding of the complex relations between social capital and innovation and how these can contribute to foster sustainable development projects. --social capital,innovation,smallholders,Cháparra,Peru,network analysis

Sen meets Schumpeter : introducing structural and dynamic elements into the human capability approach

This paper argues for the necessity and potential of introducing Schumpeter?s understanding of economic development as structural change into Amartya Sen?s people-oriented development as freedom approach. Sen and other authors on social choice, human development and inequality have effectively promoted ? through the United Nations Development Programme - that the expansion of human agency, well-being and capabilities are the means and ends of development (Sen, 1999). However, this approach has lead to a neglect of structural and technological aspects of economic systems such as social network dynamics, technological progress and the structural changes in the variety and balance of economic activities. Innovation driven socioeconomic change has decisive influences on the capabilities of the actors to be active agents in the development processes. For instance, the variety of economic sectors in a country and the access to information and finance networks determine occupational choices and learning opportunities. Economic diversification and social network dynamics follow evolutionary paths that can contribute to human development, but also intrinsically drive success-breeds-success mechanisms and inequality reproduction. Therefore, an agent oriented evolutionary theory of inequality and qualitative change has to take these structural features of economic development into account

Economic Complexity and Human Development

This book combines the human development approach and innovation economics in order to explore the effects that structural economic change has on human development. The author discusses how innovation, social networks, economic dynamics and human development are interlinked, and provides several practical examples of social and micro-entrepreneurship in contexts as diverse as Peruvian rural villages and Brazil's urban area

Measuring social capital and innovation in poor agricultural communities : the case of Cháparra, Peru

In the last decades substantive advance has been made in the measurement and understanding of frontier innovation in highly industrialized settings. However, little research focused on the process of learning and the introduction of novelties in smallholder farming of poor agricultural communities. Considering that 1.5 billion people in developing countries live in such smallholder households this is an essential shortcoming. In addressing three crucial questions about the measurement and promotion of endogenous local development this paper contributes to close this research gap. The three questions are: a) how can we measure social capital and innovation in poor agricultural communities, b) what is the impact of external agents on local structures and c) what are the relations between the social capital and the innovative performance of the farmer. In a first step a comprehensive questionnaire with 89 questions on diverse dimensions of social capital and innovation has been elaborated and applied to the agricultural valley of Cháparra in the South of Peru. The results allow for an indepth analysis of the capabilities, network position and innovative behavior of the farmers. In a second step, we apply social network analysis techniques to analyze the role and position of the relevant actors in the local as well as in the external technical information networks with a special focus on the influence of an external NGO. The analysis reveals a deep structural impact of the NGO and significant correlations between the network position of the farmers and their innovative performance. Three crucial issues for research on smallholder innovation are identified. First, diverse dimensions of social capital and innovation have to be differentiated when studying endogenous development. Second, it has to be assessed to which degree the modification of the existing social structures by external agents can be harmful or beneficial. Third, social network analysis can help us to gain a better understanding of the complex relations between social capital and innovation and how these can contribute to foster sustainable development projects

Innovation, economic diversification and human development

In this paper we bridge a gap between innovation economics and the human development approach by analyzing positive and negative effects of different types of economic diversification on social welfare. Economic variety is a driver and outcome of economic development. However, diversification leads to ambiguous effects on the well-being of human agents: on the one hand, increasing variety augments the freedom of human agents to choose. On the other hand, it can overburden their capabilities to make economic decisions and can deteriorate their well-being. It becomes clear that human development policy has to go hand in hand with an industrial policy that promotes qualitative economic diversification. Depending on its dynamics, this diversification can be achieved via related and unrelated variety. We can expect a better design of development policies from a better understanding of the co-evolutionary development of variety, freedom of choice and well-being

Statistischer Überblick der türkischen Migration in Baden-Württemberg und Deutschland

Diese Arbeit stellt die Eckdaten der türkischen Migration nach Deutschland zusammen. Das erste Kapitel beleuchtet die historischen Meilensteine der Integration, vom Anwerbungsabkommen am 31. Oktober 1961, über das Rückkehrförderungsgesetz 1983 und dem Einbürgerungsgesetz aus dem Jahr 2000. Das zweite Kapitel fasst wesentliche Daten und Fakten über die türkischen Einwanderer in Deutschland - im Vergleich auch zu anderen Migrantengruppen ? zusammen; unter anderem werden dabei Altersstruktur, Bildung und Einbindung in den Arbeitsmarkt analysiert. Im dritten Kapitel wird der Fall Baden-Württemberg näher dargestellt, im vierten kurz auf die Stadt Stuttgart eingegangen. Abschließend werden die positiven und negativen Tendenzen, basierend auf dem zugrundeliegenden Datenmaterial, noch einmal zusammengefasst. Einerseits wird die positive Tendenz vom Gastarbeiter zum Bürger deutlich, andererseits decken die Zahlen nach wie vor bestehende Schwächen deutlich auf. Diese Arbeit soll einen Beitrag dazu leisten, die Vielzahl unterschiedlicher Statistiken zum Thema Deutsch-Türkische Migration prägnant zusammenzufassen und anschaulich darzustellen

Observational evidence of strengthening of the Brewer-Dobson circulation since 1980

The change of the Brewer-Dobson circulation (BDC) over the period of 1980–2009 is examined through a combined analysis of satellite Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU/AMSU) lower stratospheric temperatures (TLS), ERA-Interim reanalysis data, and observed estimates of changes in ozone, water vapor, well-mixed greenhouse gases, and stratospheric aerosols. The MSU/AMSU-observed tropical TLS trend is first empirically separated into a dynamic component associated with the BDC changes and a radiative component due to the atmospheric composition changes. The derived change in the dynamic component suggests that the annual mean BDC has accelerated in the last 30 years (at the 90% confidence interval), with most of the change coming from the Southern Hemisphere. The annual mean Northern Hemisphere contribution to the acceleration is not statistically significant. The radiative component of tropical TLS trends is independently checked using observed changes in stratospheric composition. It is shown that the changes in ozone, stratospheric aerosols, well-mixed greenhouse gases, and water vapor make important contributions to the radiative component of tropical TLS trends. Despite large uncertainties in lower stratospheric cooling associated with uncertainties in observed ozone and water vapor changes, this derived radiative component agrees with the empirically inferred radiative component, both in terms of its average value and small seasonal dependence. By establishing a relationship between tropical residual vertical velocity at 70 hPa and TLS, we show that the relative strengthening of the annual mean BDC is about 2.1% per decade for 1980–2009, supporting the results from state-of-the-art chemistry-climate model simulations.United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (grant NNX13AN49G)United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NNX14AB28G)United States. Department of Energy. Office of Science (grant DE-SC0010557)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (grant 1342810)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (grant 1461517

The Research Space: using the career paths of scholars to predict the evolution of the research output of individuals, institutions, and nations

In recent years scholars have built maps of science by connecting the academic fields that cite each other, are cited together, or that cite a similar literature. But since scholars cannot always publish in the fields they cite, or that cite them, these science maps are only rough proxies for the potential of a scholar, organization, or country, to enter a new academic field. Here we use a large dataset of scholarly publications disambiguated at the individual level to create a map of science-or research space-where links connect pairs of fields based on the probability that an individual has published in both of them. We find that the research space is a significantly more accurate predictor of the fields that individuals and organizations will enter in the future than citation based science maps. At the country level, however, the research space and citations based science maps are equally accurate. These findings show that data on career trajectories-the set of fields that individuals have previously published in-provide more accurate predictors of future research output for more focalized units-such as individuals or organizations-than citation based science maps

relatedness, complexity and regional inequality in Europe

Pinheiro, F. L., Balland, P-A., Boschma, R., & Hartmann, D. (2022). The dark side of the geography of innovation: relatedness, complexity and regional inequality in Europe. Regional Studies, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2022.2106362------------------------Funding: Flavio L. Pinheiro acknowledges the financial support provided by FCT Portugal under the project UIDB/0415s2/2020 – Centro de Investigação em Gestão de Informação (MagIC). Dominik Hartmann would like to express his gratitude for the financial support of CNPq [grant numbers 406943/2021-4 and 315441/2021-6]. Ron Boschma acknowledges the support from the European Union-funded PILLARS (Pathways to IncLusive LAbouR marketS) project [grant agreement number 101004703]. Pierre-Alexandre Balland acknowledges the financial support from the MSCA-RISE TREND (Transition with Resilience for Evolutionary Development) project [grant agreement number 823952].As regions evolve, their economies become more complex, and they tend to diversify into related activities. Although there is a bright side to this diversification process in terms of economic development, there may also be a dark side to it, as it possibly contributes to regional inequalities. The paper uses data on industries and patents to analyze the diversification patterns of 283 regions in 32 European countries over the past 15 years. We find that only the most economically advanced regions have the opportunity to diversify into highly complex activities. These regions tend to focus on related high-complex activities, while lagging regions focus on related low-complex activities, creating a spatial inequality feedback loop. This pattern creates a wicked problem for innovation policy: the strategy needed to improve the innovativeness of the European knowledge system might disproportionately benefit regions that are already developed and foster disparities.preprintpublishersversionepub_ahead_of_prin