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                Special Issue Call for Papers *| Rethinking Innovation and Development
Discourses in Light of COVID-19 *

*Science Technology and Society (https://journals.sagepub.com/home/sts
)*



Dear All,

I am glad to share the special issue call for papers with you all here. The
deadline for submissions is 15th of November, 2021. Detailed *concept note
is available here *.
As flagged in the concept note, selected manuscript authors will be invited
to a workshop on the same theme to be hosted at Zhejiang University, China
in late 2021. The special issue will later be converted to an open- access
book. Looking forward to your valuable contributions. Should you need any
further information or have any questions, kindly drop me a mail. Thank you
enormously in anticipation!

Best Regards

Sheikh Fayaz Ahmad (PhD)

Innovation Researcher | Zhejiang University China.
Email:  fayazjustinternational@gmail.com

*Special Issue Background*

The COVID‐19 pandemic has cast new light on worldwide socioeconomic
susceptibility to exogenous shocks. This global crisis has been cited as
being unlike any other in modern memory (Schwab & Malleret, 2020). In
addition to sparking an unforeseen socioeconomic crisis, COVID-19 has
exposed innovation systems’ vulnerabilities as evidenced by innovation
obstacles (Chesbrough, 2020) and overdependence on conventional approaches.
More than a year after the pandemic’s emergence, global citizens continue
to grapple with adverse economic and health-related effects (Sohrabi et
al., 2020; Zakaria, 2020). The virus has also unveiled deep flaws in the
global public health infrastructure (Brands & Gavin, 2020). Susskind and
Vines (2020) argued that COVID-19 has triggered the most severe global
economic consequences since the South Sea Bubble burst in 1720. As COVID-19
is akin to a natural disaster, some economists have suggested that the
outbreak could lead to severe economic crises—unlike a more standard
financial crisis that follows from the arrogance of a few (Gans, 2021).
Nearly all global governments are navigating the ramifications of the
pandemic. A series of revelatory reports on COVID-19 have shown that its
damage has exceeded expectations (Naidoo and Fisher, 2020; Zakaria, 2020).
To date, COVID-19 has infected more than 124 million people and was
projected to be responsible for global economic losses totaling between
$5.8 trillion and $8.8 trillion by the end of 2020 (Bachman, 2020; Sarkis
et al., 2020; Staff, 2020). The outbreak has also dragged millions into
poverty; more than 265 million people were expected to struggle with hunger
by late 2020 (Anthem, 2020). Further complicating governments’ fight
against COVID-19 are concerns of racial injustice, climate change, and
economic inequality (Henderson, 2020; Mazzucato, 2021).

Amid the health, political, and economic crises unleashed by the pandemic
(Rowan & Galanakis, 2020), COVID-19—similar to prior crises—has reignited
debate around the dominant narrative across innovation and development
discourses. Inherent tensions accompanying the prevailing producer’s
innovation paradigm (Cristensen, et al 2019; von Hippel, 2017) have become
especially pronounced. The ruling economic system of capitalism has also
come under fire (Yunus, 2018, Henderson, 2020). Muzzacato, (2021) asserted
that the COVID-19 outbreak has illuminated the cracks in capitalism as well
as its flaws. She further argued that there is no better time than now to
rectify these issues—but that it will only be possible to do so by
reimagining governments’ roles, policies, and capitalism at large.
Meanwhile, among criticism of existing growth and innovation models, many
Nobel prizewinning economists have drawn hope from COVID-19: they believe
that the pandemic has opened a window of opportunity to explore alternative
innovation and growth models, even warning that returning to old models
could be “equal to committing suicide” (Yunus, 2021).

People were advocating for revamped innovation and development models well
before COVID-19. The environmental crises, institutional collapses,
middle-income traps, stagflation, and wealth inequality that followed the
2008 recession ignited concerns about common innovation and growth models
(Gordon, 2016; Heeks et al., 2014, p. 176; Piketty and Goldhammer 2017;
Santiago, 2014, p. 1). Jacobs and Mazzucato (2016) pointed out that
inequality has reached a peak unseen since the 1800s.
‘Productivity-enhancing innovation’ has declined as well (Gordon, 2016).
Climate change and health crises such as COVID-19 continue to threaten
global prosperity (Henderson, 2020; Mazzucato, 2021). So-called
‘degenerative industrial activity’ based on a linear industrial system
has
decimated natural cycles and siphoned natural resources (Raworth, 2017).
Against this dark backdrop, financial greed from material through-flow has
corroded intelligent, local, non-compensated, and sustainable innovation
(Raworth, 2017).

Given such dysfunction, innovation and development models deserve renewed
attention (Bhaduri, 2016; Bhatti et al., 2018; von Hippel, 2017; Mazzucato,
2021; Phelps, 2013; UNCTAD, 2017, Krishna, 2017). Scholars have advocated
for recasting growth models such that externalities are primed to rectify
pitfalls (Henderson, 2020; Yunus, 2018, Wu, 2020). Sustainability has also
gained global traction, with experts recommending hybrid innovation models
as a partial answer to climate change, inequality, and poverty (UNCTAD,
2017). More democratized innovation models, which can promote grassroots
thinking and sustainability, are becoming increasingly popular (Godin &
Vinck, 2017; Hippel, 2005). Development scholars have thus started to
explore alternative paths to development and innovation that feature
neither ‘extraction’ nor negative externalities. Even some argue that
post-COVID-19 “development must have a radically transformative,
egalitarian and inclusive knowledge and politics at its core” (Leach et
al., 2021). The traditional “top down, rigid and orientated towards
narrowly-defined economic goals” development model should be avoided.

Just as the pandemic has revealed the “fault lines of the world – most
notably social divides, lack of fairness, absence of cooperation, failure
of global governance and leadership,” it has highlighted room for
transformation. “Reinvention” is imperative if practitioners wish to
thoroughly address global challenges (Schwab & Malleret, 2020). COVID-19
has inspired radical approaches to innovation, research and development,
and community initiatives. Other problems, such as excessive institutional
reliance on ‘superspecialization’ and ‘databased decisions,’ also call
for
innovation: ideas that encourage adaptability and experimentation can have
far-reaching benefits (Knorringa & Bhaduri, 2020). The common assumption
that red tape, bureaucracy, and government overreach inhibit innovation is
changing as well; in fact, many have argued that public policy and
government support are integral to a hopeful future. Weiss (2021) even
contended that the government possesses the entrepreneurial spirit
necessary to transform the public sector’s responses to both major and
minor problems.

The pandemic has compelled healthcare ecosystems worldwide to rethink their
global strategies, moving from resilience to anti-fragility (Cobianchi, Dal
Mas, et al., 2020). Seemingly countless modern technologies have flourished
in response to COVID-19 (e.g., 3D printing, flexible manufacturing systems,
big data analytics, and smart healthcare wearables) (Brem et al., 2021). In
a similar vein, telehealth has led in-person clinical visits to be partly
replaced by virtual consultations (Woolliscroft, 2020). Bottom up
entrepreneurship featuring homegrown efforts to crowdsource innovations has
also ‘sparked creative collaborations to tackle timely issues (Ramadi &
Nguyen, 2021). Digital technologies are being harnessed to support public
health responses to COVID-19 as well (Budd et al., 2020). Frugal
innovations (Harris et al., 2020) represent a notable bright spot. Rapidly
reusing, repurposing, and recombining available resources and knowledge has
become a prominent innovation strategy (von Krogh, 2020; Harris et al.,
2020). COVID-19 has breathed new life into national innovation plans and
accelerated pandemic-related interventions: governments have begun
promoting local and international cooperation and imploring start-ups and
other companies to fast-track promising mitigation measures (OECD, 2020).
Open-source circular economy movements by innovators, designers, and
activists are also being pursued to create regenerative economies worldwide
(Raworth, 2017). Even healthcare organizations in advanced countries such
as the U.S. are learning from Asia and Africa in the fight against the
pandemic (Ramamurti, 2020), revealing a trend of reverse innovation from
less to more developed economies (Ramamurti, 2020). Innovation policy is
evolving dramatically. Economic growth is no longer considered the sole
means of ‘stimulating technological development’; ‘solving concrete and
pressing problems in society at large’ currently dominates the innovation
policy discourse (Wanzenböck, & Hekkert 2012).

*Indicative List of Themes*

In the wake of the pandemic and other global challenges, this special issue
is intended to gather empirical insight on innovation, development, and
innovation policy for a post-COVID-19 world. This special issue aims to
identify the guiding principles of government innovation and development
policy to overcome pressing challenges. We are especially interested in
papers that highlight why it is necessary to recast prevailing innovation
and development discourses and recommend inclusive and sustainable
alternative pathways. The issue will be dedicated in exploring the
under-researched areas of innovation policy, alternative, equitable,
sustainable and inclusive development and innovation pathways. Papers that
delineate the roles of alternative innovation models, frugal innovations,
and grassroots innovations amid COVID-19 are welcomed. Conceptual papers
and provocative essays that offer new perspectives on the roles of
governments and mission-oriented innovation policy in combatting crises
such as COVID-19 will be considered as well. We also encourage papers on
digital innovations’ potential applications and places in a sustainable,
equitable future. Research on social innovations, secondary innovations,
and bottom-up developmental practices with policy inferences is similarly
sought after. We encourage submissions across broad disciplines with an
array of theoretical and practical implications.

*Guest Editors:* Prof. Xiaobo Wu (Zhejiang University, China); Dr. Fayaz
Ahmad Sheikh (Zhejiang University, China)

*SAGE’s Science, Technology and Society* (STS) offers a fertile platform to
debate questions on development, technology, and innovations. STS is a
prestigious international peer-reviewed journal devoted to the
interdisciplinary study of science and technology and innovations in social
contexts. The journal is included in all major abstracting and indexing
databases like Scopus, Social Sciences Citation Index (Web of Science) and
etc. Selected manuscript authors will be invited to a workshop on the same
theme to be hosted at Zhejiang University, China in late 2021. The special
issue will later be converted to an open-access book.

*Submission Guidelines for Science, Technology and Society: *Complete
manuscripts should be addressed to the guest editors of the special issue:
Prof. Xiaobo Wu and Dr. Fayaz Ahmad Sheikh and also copy them to Dr. V.V.
Krishna, Editor-in-Chief, Science, Technology and Society at following
emails: stsjournal@gmail.com, xbwu@zju.edu.cn, sheikhfayaz@zju.edu.cn.

*Important Dates*


   - First submission date 15 April 2021
   - Deadline for full submissions 15 November, 2021
   - Projected workshop date 30 December 2021
   - Manuscript decisions 15 April 2022

*Concept Note*

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