The STEPS Centre Symposium, 26 September 2009, focused on our Innovation, Sustainability, Development: A New Manifesto project. This presentation by Geoff Adrian Smith was one of those given at the event. For more information see: www.anewmanifesto.org

2. Grassroots innovation from a socio-technical perspective Markets Infrastructure Distribution networks Appropriate knowledge Risk and uncertainty strategies Committed and resourceful participants Business/organisational models Social acceptability Capabilities and skills Social values Key technologies Grassroots innovators need considerable social agency in order to align the material, institutional and discursive elements necessary for a ‘working socio-technical practice’: Idealists and entrepreneurs Institutions (norms and rules) Etc. Work that is about knowledge, technique, organisation, economy, and politics Source: RTS

4. A multi-level perspective on grassroots innovation Source: Geels (2002) Socially inclusive pathways Dominant / excluding modes of provision Diffusion Scaling-up Translation Grassroots innovations Internal dynamics and contradictions Environmental change, social pressure, demography, development ideologies