Overview

This book traces the history of innovations from precolonial times and examines precolonial settlements in southern Africa such as Mapungubwe in LImpopo Province, Bokoni in Mpumalanga Province and Msuluzi in KwaZulu-Natal Province from the perspective of their indigenious technological efforts to harness nature for communal benefit. It is informed by the understanding that national systems of innovation evolve and take shape against the backdrop of regional, continental and global macrosocial dynamics, including corresponding systems of innovation.

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9781928341253

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The authors use a broad definition of the national system of innovation as framework for a series of studies in the historical emergence of the South African economy and society. The book is highly original in taking a long historical perspective starting with the Stone Age and ending with current challenges from a globalizing economy. This approach gives a good understanding of how the national dimension of innovation systems is first shaped and later on challenged. The integration of the innovation system concept in a specific political economy discourse is original and offers interesting insights. The book gives observers a good understanding of why the current South African innovation system looks as it does and of the main challenges ahead . - Emeritus Professor Bengt-Ake Lundvall, Department of Business Studies at Aalborg University, Denmark and Professor at Sciences-Po, Paris, France. The diverse perspectives on how local processes of innovation and social change are connected to the world system, both through collaboration and subordination, will be of immense value to scholars and students interested in innovation and development as well as policymakers in governmental and private bodies . - Jose E Cassiolato, Professor of Economics and Coordinator of the Research Network on Local Production and Innovation Systems, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Author Information

The Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA), which was publicly launched as a think tank in March 2011, was founded by a group of South Africans with experience in research, academia, policymaking and governance who saw the need to create a platform for engagement around strategic issues facing South Africa.

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