We are delighted to kickstart the Academic Seminar series in the School of Public Policy 2023-24 with a seminar by Dr. Annapurna Mamidipudi.
Title: Reaping what we sow: From Sustainable Development to Responsible Innovation
Speaker: Annapurna Mamidipudi
Date: Wednesday, 02-08-2023
Time: 12-1:30 pm
Venue: LHC 606
Abstract:
India is set to come up with 28 bioethanol plants that will convert waste biomass to fuel; the first second-generation biofuel refinery will be set up in Punjab, where the fires of environmental toxicity due to rice straw disposal by farmers burn the brightest, clogging up the lungs of Punjab and Delhi for the better part of two months every winter. This announcement in the media comes on the tail of the report of a NWO funded Responsible Research and Innovation [RRI] project on the responsible production of biogas from rice straw waste, which recommends that farmer innovations be taken more seriously in addressing the crisis. Despite the inclusive and deliberative language of the framework, participation in innovation governance aims to secure public acceptance of emerging science and technology within the institutions and frameworks of economic development. This European framing of RRI as a tool to align social and ethical values with S&T innovation encounters a different context in the case of Indian rice straw: By engaging with farmers knowledge and practices, and their organizations involved in shaping such a technological culture, we ask: What knowledge is conceived as relevant for legitimizing which ambitions in the agricultural transformation of India? How are innovation policy-frameworks shaping which knowledge, practice, and aims as valid? And what can we learn from the trajectory of exclusion of farmer knowledge in earlier policy frameworks such as Green Revolution, and Sustainable Development, for designing effective RRI policies in the future?
Speaker bio:
Annapurna Mamidipudi currently works at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, and is affiliated to Department III Artefacts, Action and Knowledge, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. Annapurna does research in Innovation studies, Craft epistemologies, History of Art, Musicology and History of Science. Their most recent publication is 'Constructing Common Knowledge: Design Practice for Social Change in Craft Livelihoods in India'.