Carlota Perez

This course is available on the MSc in African Development, MSc in Development Management, MSc in Development Studies and MSc in Development Studies (Research). This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This is an interdisciplinary course aimed at understanding how technical change modifies the windows of opportunity for growth and development as well as how technology and institutions influence each other. The course will be structured in three parts: Part one - Theory of technical change will provide a set of tools for analysing technology from a social science perspective, connecting the neo-Schumpeterian theories of technology and innovation with the theories of development. Part two - The impact of technical change on development will use that framework to explain why development opportunities are a moving target and why what may have been impossible in a particular period can become possible in another, thus requiring an evolutionary perspective of development strategies. Part Three - The mutual influence of technology and social institutions will examine the way in which social forces, movements and policies shape and are shaped by technology and the social innovation potential it provides.

15 hours of lectures and 20 hours of seminars in the LT.

Note: part of the teaching and the seminar guidance will be performed by guest professors. Mary Kaldor and Robin Murray

Reading three or four papers for each lecture and submitting comments as requested in each case. Participating in the exercises and debates proposed in the seminars. Searching examples in the media of the issues being discussed. Participating in the discussion of their colleagues’ exam presentations. Writing an essay during the Lent Term in order to receive comments with a view to improving the final essays. Giving presentations on chosen topics in the seminar sessions and participating in the discussion of colleagues' presentations.

Part One

Dosi, Giovanni, Chris Freeman, Richard Nelson, Gerald Silverberg and Luc Soete (eds) (1988), (chosen chapters) Technical Change and Economic Theory, London and New York: Pinter and Columbia University Press.

Freeman, C (1995). "The 'National System of Innovation' in historical perspective". Cambridge Journal of Economics. 19: 5-24.

Geels, F.W., 2012, 'A socio-technical analysis of low-carbon transitions: Introducing the multi-level perspective into transport studies', Journal of Transport Geography, 24, 471-482.

Lundvall, B.-Å., Johnson, B., Andersen, E.S., and B. Dalum (2002), 'National systems of production, innovation and competence building', Research Policy, 31, 213-231.

Perez C.( 2010) "Technological revolutions and techno-economic paradigms", Cambridge Journal of Economics, Vol. 34, No.1, pp. 185-202.

Part Two

Ernst, D., (2002). 'Global production networks and the changing geography of innovation systems: implications for developing countries', Economics of Innovation and New Technologies, 11 (6), 497-523.

Perez, C. (2010) "Technological dynamism and social inclusion in Latin America: a resource-based production development strategy" in CEPAL Review No. 100, pp. 121-141.

Perez, C., and Soete, L. (1988) "Catching up in technology: entry barriers and windows of opportunity, in Dosi et al. (eds) Chapter 21, pp. 458-479.

Rodrik, D. (2004) “Industrial Policy for the Twenty-first Century”, CEPR Discussion Paper 4767, London: CEPR. Available online: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=617544.

Part Three

Murray, R., Caulier-Grice,J. and Mulgan, G. (2010) The Open Book of Social Innovation, Nesta.

Raymond, E. (1999) The Cathedral and the Bazaar,  O’Reilly Media. Chapter 2, available at http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/.

Schot, J.W., 2001, 'Towards new forms of participatory technology development', Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 13(1), 39-52.

Smith, A., Fressoli,M and Thomas, H. “Grassroots innovation movements: challenges and contributions” Journal of Cleaner Production 63 (2014) pp 114-124.

Williams, R. and D. Edge (1996), 'The social shaping of technology', Research Policy, 25(6), 865-899.

Essay (50%, 2500 words) and presentation (50%) in the ST.