Understanding Indigenous Innovation in Rural West Africa
Challenges to Diffusion of Innovations Theory and Current Social Innovation Practice
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2183818 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Joel R Matthews (Diablo Valley College, Pleasant Hill, CA, USA) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 223-238 |
| Publication date | 2017-04-03 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Human Development (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1464-9888 • E-ISSN: 1469-9516 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/19452829.2016.1270917 |
| OpenAlex | W2567982620 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 16 |
Most social innovation (SI) work done in developing countries is carried out through development agencies that focus on initiating innovations and processes, and establishing institutions that cultivate a change-oriented mindset. I offer a general critique of that approach and I link that critique with my observations from 15 years living and working among rural indigenous people in West Africa. I suggest that, not only do much of the SI processes fail to show respect for the creativity and intelligence of indigenous people, they tend to come packaged with exogenous participatory processes, encourage scaling-up, and ignore innovation that is already occurring. These arguments set the stage for an examination of a system of innovation that I discovered operating in a Hausa village in Niger. This system not only challenges the most important theory explaining the adoption and spread of ideas, the diffusion of innovations, it also demonstrates how indigenous people in one of the poorest countries on earth are innovating without intervention or support from development agencies. I complete the paper by suggesting that in some cases more sensible SI can be facilitated by discovering and supporting indigenous processes of innovation rather than by focusing on initiating change
Citizen journalism · Economic growth · Economics · Indigenous · Mindset · Participatory development · Political science · Social change · Sociology · Innovation and Socioeconomic Development · Innovative Approaches in Technology and Social Development · Open Source Software Innovations
Unpacking the narrative of agricultural innovations as the sine qua non of sustainable rural livelihoods in Southern Africa
Applying a diffusion innovation theory to identify novelty in communication research
Factors constraining the use of mobile phone technologies for accessing agricultural marketing information by grape smallholder farmers in Tanzania
Developing breakthrough innovation capabilities in university ecosystems
Introducing the adopter perspective in social innovation research
Social innovations in rural communities in Africa's Great Lakes region. A social work perspective
Innovation resistance and mobile banking in rural Colombia
Lead farmer extension and engagement
Social Innovation and the Capability Approach-Introduction to the Special Issue
Identifying Opinion Leaders to Promote Behavior Change
Building competitive advantage from ubuntu
Anthropology and Development
Whose Reality Counts
The International Handbook on Social Innovation
Africanity
Evaluating participatory development
Encountering Development
"Improving Agricultural Practices among African Smallholders" - The Contribution of Adoption and Diffusion of Innovation Research to Agricultural Development in Africa
Rethinking Development Management Methodology
| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2026 (10) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 8 |