Configuration of inclusive innovation systems: Function, agents and capabilities

Social exclusion represents a major challenge to policies advocating sustainable development in the Global South. Although this is a problem not prioritized in the realms of innovation policy focused on economic growth and competitiveness, it is now widely accepted that innovation may contribute significantly to the well-being of the social excluded. However, it is debated whether the innovation system approach is capable of informing transformational innovation policies aiming at overcoming social exclusion and other global challenges. This paper argues that the system innovation approach is adequate for facing this endeavour and identifies key constituent elements of innovation systems which are necessary for inclusion to emerge from the system dynamics. We illustrate the elements of this system configuration drawing upon the case of the appropriation of biorational approaches in pest management and precision agriculture techniques by a group of peasants in a rural village in Colombia. The proposal considers new elements that configure inclusive innovation systems in an agent-based, bottom-up perspective, such as new agents, capabilities, directionalities, and the integration of traditional knowledge with scientific and technology knowledge, elements that enable a new system function. In terms of policy implications, some reflections are made on favouring the sustainability paradigm and promoting inclusive learning processes. •Explains the configuration of Inclusive innovation systems (IIS)•Introduces six capabilities for inclusion, these join to innovation capabilities•Discusses the interaction between conventional agents and excluded agents in IIS•Extend the function of conventional innovation systems (CIS) to reduce exclusion•Argues the need to include traditional knowledge for IIS emergence