Suchergebnisse

The topic of this article is the mobility of the highly skilled, or 'moths', towards, in and from post-apartheid South Africa. The article picks up where the Human Sciences Research Council study on the mobility of knowledge workers left off by examining new data, and innovation and immigration policy. It argues that there has been a considerable shift in researcher demographics, but that this has been through a policy of substitution rather than growth. The ongoing shortage of skills thereby creates a price premium for that skill, the more so as immigration policy dictates that the considerable investment in developing foreign students returns little by way of local capacity development. Despite a dysfunctional school system the innovation system shows resilience, with increased publication outputs largely pulled up by international collaboration. The odds are that the innovation system will remain starved of foreign staff, yet be 'open' for collaboration. The beach is open, but the gate is closed.

A Declaração dos BRICS na Cidade do Cabo em 10 de fevereiro de 2014 comprometeu os cinco signatários para um programa de cooperação em ciência, tecnologia e inovação (CTI). Foi tomada a decisão específica de alocar responsabilidades setoriais para cada parte: mudança climática e atenuação de catástrofes (Brasil); recursos hídricos e tratamento de poluição (Rússia); tecnologia geoespacial e suas aplicações (Índia); energias novas e renováveis, e eficiência energética (China); e astronomia (África do Sul). A ciência possui uma aparência de neutralidade, e como tal é uma importante aliada da diplomacia "soft", assim como o tênis de mesa na reaproximação entre Nixon e Mao em 1975. O mesmo não é exatamente verdade com respeito à tecnologia, com sua óbvia importância militar e com a inovação, que está intimamente conectada à competição econômica. A Declaração levanta, portanto, algumas questões interessantes. Qual é o presente estado da cooperação em CTI entre o grupo dos BRICS? Qual é a justificativa por trás da escolha dessas cinco áreas? Como essas áreas se alinham com a estratégia doméstica de cada país para CTI? Quais acordos bilaterais de CTI já estão em andamento, e o que eles têm produzido como resultados? Como a Declaração da Cidade do Cabo se alinha ou se compromete com o processo entre Índia, Brasil e África do Sul (IBSA)? As crescentes tensões geopolíticas (Mar Negro, Mar da China) irão limitar o escopo da cooperação em CTI? A análise de documentos e a bibliometria proporcionam algumas respostas às questões acima, porém o mais provável é que o fator decisivo sejam as dinâmicas geopolíticas globais.

Whether rejection of Robert Bork's nomination to the US Supreme Court was unique and/or based on purely political reasons.

'Science' has for long been advocated as a key driver of Africa's post-independence modernisation. This project featured strongly in the Organization of African Unit Lagos Plan of Action of 1980 that called for governments to mobilise 1% of GDP towards building their scientific and technological capabilities. The 1% goal was duly re-affirmed at the African Union Ministers' Conference of 2003, in Africa's Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action 2005, and in the 2014 Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa. The contribution presents a high-level assessment of the extent to which these various efforts are revealed in the present continent-wide status of science, technology and innovation (STI). To this end, a high-level appraisal of STI inputs, focus and outputs is assembled. In so doing, the limitations of data and STI indicators must be acknowledged. While there are signs of progress, STI policy has greater rhetorical than operational outcome, raising concerns for African states' capability to attain the SDGs and shape their participation in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

This exploratory study adds to the under-developed literature on a Research Topic that laden with epistemological, philosophical, and ideological overtones, and that begs many questions. The literature on political economy generally, and that for Africa, enjoys full disciplinary status. In contrast the political economy of research and innovation remains an emerging interdisciplinary field that examines the overlap between innovation studies and political economy. The pursuit of "science and technology" was expected to play its part in the imperialist and colonial agendas, and in the post-colonial project, when science and technology policy was a strong element in advocacy for Africa's post-independence development. What have the policies achieved, and what explains the shortfalls? What indeed is the relationship between industrial policy and research and innovation policy? What is the social contract with research and innovation? The study commences with a general overview of the social contract for science before turning to Africa's post-independence modernizing agenda, and the roles ascribed to industrial policy and research and innovation policy. An eclectic methodology drawing on Cloutier (2021) is deployed to characterize and measure the social contract between research and innovation. The methodology adapts Cloutier (2021) to the functionality of national innovation systems. The responsiveness of STI policy is further probed using Martin, 2015 categorization of innovation policy informed by Theory of Change. Where possible reference is made to conventional STI indicators. Research and innovation policy is then assessed at continental and national levels, with attention given to the extent of linkages in national innovation systems. Further to tease out the various forms of social contract, five country-level STI policies are analyzed using the Martin categorization and Theory of Change methodology. It will be argued that a binding, social contract for inclusive research and innovation policy is largely ...

The onset of constitutional democracy in South Africa potentially marked a critical juncture in the evolution of its innovation system. At this point the Ministry responsible for science and technology adopted the innovation systems approach. This adoption followed the IDRC OECD-style review of 1993. Nineteen years later, after a full-fledged OECD Review, the extent to which the innovation system demonstrates continuity or change may be assessed. The assessment is broadly functionalist and considers the role of institutions and actors. While the polity has become more inclusive, extractive economic institutions persist. Likewise the social contract between science and society has evolved but it continues to show extractive attributes. It appears that thus far the innovation systems approach has been more of a rhetorical than a practical device with the pre-1994 and present innovation systems showing both continuity and disjuncture. It is these challenges that the current Ministerial Review of the STI Landscape ( DST 2012 ) has sought to address.