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 […]
Category Archives: Projects
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Citizen-Science-Project: REPARA/KUL/TUR
This citizen science project studies repair and making activities within community-based workshops in Germany, and is led by Melanie Jaeger-Erben and Sabine Hielscher, ZTG, TU Berlin, Germany Around the world, […]
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 […]
Journal article: The role of community leadership in the development of grassroots innovations
This article focuses on the role of community leadership in the development of grass- roots innovations. It asks: When community leaders initiate energy projects, what types of skills and knowledge […]
Community Energy postcards – giveaway!
Can you help us distribute the last of our Community Energy research highlight postcards? Our colourful and easily-digestible set of postcards distil 3 years of our research into 10 key findings, […]
Grassroots innovation and democracy
In the summer of 2016 Andy Stirling and Adrian Smith were asked by Friends of the Earth to write a ‘thinkpiece’ on the topic grassroots innovation and democracy as part […]
Alternative technology niches – some reflections
Twelve years ago I wrote an article that set my first, tentative bearings for embarking upon research into the actual and potential roles innovative grassroots activity might play in sustainable developments. The article has […]
Grassroots Innovation Movements
You can get a twenty per cent discount on buying our new book, Grassroots Innovation Movements, published by Routledge and available in Paperback as well as Hardcover. The discount code […]
New book: Grassroots innovation movements
Our new book, Grassroots Innovation Movements, will be published in August 2016. You can download the Open Access Introductory chapter here. Innovation is increasingly invoked by policy elites and business […]
Makerspaces making sustainable developments …
Back in October we organised a workshop at the Machines Room makerspace in London, where participants addressed the question, how can makerspaces help cultivate sustainable developments. The results of the […]
CfP:Digital fabrications amongst hackers, makers and manufacturers: whose ‘industrial revolution’?
We invite abstracts for a track we are organising on the theme of digital fabrications amongst hackers, makers and manufacturers, and which will take place in Barcelona over August 31 to September […]
Journal article: What influences the diffusion of grassroots innovations for sustainability?
Community action for sustainability is a promising site of socio- technical innovation. Here we test the applicability of co- evolutionary niche theories of innovation diffusion (strategic niche management, SNM) to […]
Event: How can makerspaces, fablabs and hackerspaces help cultivate sustainable developments?
The aim of this event on Monday 26 October at the Machines Room in London is to bring together people involved or interested in sustainability activities to share, discuss, and […]
