Power and politics in grassroots innovation
On 8th December 2022 we organised a panel discussion about power and politics in grassroots innovation for the STEPS Centre final event. The STEPS Centre supported a lot of our […]
Author Archives: Adrian Smith
Post-automation: grassroots innovation democratizing the Fourth Industrial Revolution?
A new open access article in the journal Futures by Adrian Smith and Mariano Fressoli contrasts grassroots subversion of some of the technologies of automation with the way automation is […]
Communities, technologies and democratic innovation
At an ESRC Festival of Social Science event on 12th November 2020 (12:30) Wired Sussex at Fusebox director Phil Jones is interviewing Prof Andy Stirling and Prof Adrian Smith in […]
Going beyond the smart city? Implementing technopolitical platforms for urban democracy in Madrid and Barcelona
This post reports research into the situated development over time of two digital platforms for democratic deliberation and decision. There has been renewed interest recently in techniques for facilitated citizen […]
Post-automation
Grassroots innovations in the development and use of digital technologies are generating important alternatives to the latest wave of automation in societies. A report explains more based on insights emerging […]
Technology and human capabilities in UK makerspaces
The relationship between technology and human capabilities is ambivalent and complex. A new article by Cian O’Donovan and Adrian Smith reports analysis of how users experience enhanced (or diminished) capabilities […]
Doing digital differently: four lessons from grassroots innovators
Conventional models for digital technological developments tend to prioritise a linear approach around individual leaders (“founder worship”), a Venture Capital-based investment model, a high financial valuation, and market dominance through […]
Capitulo: Traduciendo sustentabilidades entre nichos ecológicos y regímenes socio-tecnicos
En los ultimos años Adrian Smith ha tenido la privilegia de colaboración con colegas y comunidades en America Latina e España en el desarrollo de innovación de base y sostentabilidad. […]
Book chapter: the knowledge politics of smart urbanism and technopolitics in Barcelona
Drawing upon Adrian Smith’s fieldwork in Barcelona under the Knowledge Politics of Smart Urbanism project, a team of researchers from the project have co-authored a chapter about shifts in digital […]
Makerspaces and institutions – a special issue of Journal of Peer Production
Developing out of research into grassroots appropriations of digital farbictation, Kat Braybrooke and Adrian Smith recently guest edited the publication of the Journal of Peer Production dedicated to research articles […]
Post-automation, grassroots innovation and Corbyn
Adrian Smith was recently interviewed (May 20th) in the newsletter of Fully Automated Luxury Communism. He explained his ideas for post-automation and the importance for democracy of grassroots innovation and […]
Smart cities need thick data not big data
A number of grassroots appropriations of ‘smart’ technologies in urban settings are being studied as part of the KNOWING project (the knowledge politics of smart urbanism). Adrian Smith is studying […]
Forking the SDGs: going beyond sustainability protoypes?
Adrian Smith recently posted a blogpost exploring links between the SDGs and prototyping alternatives in sustainability. It reflects upon themes arising from a workshop he organised at itdUPM in Madrid […]
Article: Understanding the Scaling-Up of Community Energy Niches through Strategic Niche Management Theory: Insights from Finland.
Updating her CISE research into community energy in Finland, Mari Martiskainen has worked with colleagues there and published an article (open access) that considers how a range of community energy […]
Article: Community energy initiatives to alleviate fuel poverty: the material politics of Energy Cafés
Mari Martiskainen has published a new article (open access) with colleagues that builds on her work with the CISE project, and now looks at Energy Cafés. Community action has an […]
Spreading the word about grassroots innovation
A new briefing from the STEPS Centre, called Making Futures, includes a summary of some activities we’ve initiated in recent years to help spread the word about grassroots innovation. More […]
National Teaching Fellowship for Grassroots Innovations academic
A leading Grassroots Innovations academic at the University of East Anglia has been recognised for her exceptional teaching, and has been named a National Teaching Fellow by the Higher Education […]
Working paper: knowledge politics and political economy in open and collaborative methods for development
Experimentation with radically open and collaborative ways of producing knowledge and material artefacts can be found everywhere, from the free/libre and open-source software movement to citizen science initiatives, and from […]
New article: Innovation, sustainability and democracy: an analysis of grassroots contributions
Last summer, Andy Stirling and Adrian Smith were invited to contribute a ‘thinkpiece’ about grassroots innovation to Friends of the Earth’s Big Ideas series. We explored how grassroots innovation initiatives, […]
New working paper: social innovation, democracy and makerspaces
Adrian Smith from SPRU recently published a new working paper that draws upon research in makerspaces in order to explore and illustrate some of the politics of social innovation, and […]
Grassroots Innovations 