Science, Technology and Innovation for Social Inclusion: experiences, struggles and policy opportunities

Ponencia presentada en UNESCO International Symposium on Accelerating Innovation in Developing Countries. Kuala Lumpur (Malasia), 3 al 5 de noviembre.

The purpose of this paper is to present some ideas relating science, technology and innovation and their role in providing solutions for some of the problems generally circumscribed to the social inclusion of disadvantaged social groups in developing countries. It does not intend to be a thorough review of the state of the art on the topic or the problems related to it; rather it is a personal selection of aspects based on the general context of poverty and inequality of Latin America, the territory to which I belong, and of actual situations of knowledge creatively put into practice to illustrate challenges and opportunities for policy development.

The ideas in this document are drawn from specialized literature on the general topic of knowledge in developing countries, personal experience working at the research council in a public university setting throughout two decades, and collective concerns and ideas shared among members of an interdisciplinary academic group focused on issues of science, technology, innovation and society.