The ‘IN CONVERSATION’ series portray prominent innovation scholars of the day in the form of intellectual-biographical interviews. The 12th episode features MAMMO MUCHIE in a deep conversation with MARGRETHE HOLM ANDERSEN on 22 MAY 2023.
Time & Location
22 May, 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm UTC
ZOOM
About the Event
About the Event
The IN CONVERSATION series portrays prominent innovation scholars of the day in the form of intellectual-biographical interviews.
In the TWELTH event MAMMO MUCHIE will be interviewed by MRGRETHE HOLM ANDERSEN
On 22 MAY, 2023
At 12 PM GMT | 1 pm – London | 8 am – New York | 9 am – Brazil | 1 pm – London | 2 pm – Denmark, France, Italy & South Africa | 3 pm – EAT | 5.30 pm – India | 8 pm China & Malaysia | 9 pm – Tokyo | 10 PM Canberra
The event will be moderated by ANAMIKA . R
Penel of discussants: Bengt Ake Lundvall, Geci Karuri Sebina & Diran Soumonni
Structure of the program (2 hours split up as follows)
Brief intro to the program and introducing MARGRETHE by ANAMIKA. R (5 minutes)
i. Introductory remarks by MARGRETHE and MAMMO is introduced (10 minutes) followed by a conversation between them as follows
ii. Formative years and major influences – (10 minutes)
iii. Contributions, Critique and weakness, Current work & future course – (35 minutes): starting from the important contributions of MAMMO, evolving towards a critical evaluation of his work. Then moving on to discussions on what next given the changing circumstances, how the theoretical contributions are relevant in current circumstances etc. It is a platform to convey what they want future generations to take from MAMMO and how they can further develop standing on the strong base that was created.
iv. Comment on Status of Innovation Economics and what next? – (10 minutes)
Some of the possible questions could be the following. However the speakers can shape it the way they want it to be!· How did you end up doing research on innovation?· What were your most important contributions to the field?· To what degree have you engaged in teamwork and collective research?· How do you see the relationship between economics and innovation studies?· How do you see the role of innovation policy and innovation politics in development strategies?· How do you see the future for innovation studies?· At what level should we study innovation – micro, meso and macro?· What kind of methods should we use to study innovation and economic development?· What kind of advice would you like to give to young innovation scholars?· What role can innovation play in meeting global challenges?
B R E A K – 5 MINUTES
v. Discussion (1 hour): For the 1 hour discussion a panel of scholars [BENGT AKE LUNDVALL, GECI KARURI SEBINA, and DIRAN SOUMONNI] will ask questions or make comments on MAMMO’s work. After MAMMO’s response to them the forum will be open for questions from the general audience.
vi. Finally MARGRETHE winds up the session with a vote of thanks.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
MAMMO MUCHIE
Prof. Muchie is currently a DST/NRF Research Professor at the Faculty of Management Sciences, Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa. He previously served as a Director of the Research Centre on Development Studies and International Relations, Department of History, International and Social Studies, Aalborg University in Denmark.
Muchie was educated in USA and in Europe. He obtained his MPhil and DPhil degrees in development economics and science, technology and innovation studies from Sussex University, England under the supervision of the renowned innovation scholar, the late Freeman of the IDS/SPRU. He also studied Measurement Science in Petrograd, Russia. He has taught and researched at various universities in the USA and Europe including Cambridge University and the Middlesex University (UK); the University of Aalborg (Denmark) and Amsterdam University (Netherlands).
He is a fellow of the South African Academy of Sciences and the African Academy of Sciences. He is also currently adjunct Professor at the Adama Science, Technology University, Addis Ababa University and University of Gondar, Ethiopia. He has been a Senior Research Associate at the Oxford University.
He is currently the chairman of the advisory board of African Talent hub of the Community Interest Company (registration no.10461990) to raise funds for making Africa the talent, innovation, entrepreneurship, creativity and knowledge hub of the world. He has been appointed as special distinguished advisor to the Africa Union’s Student Council and a mentor for the African Entrepreneurship award. He has initiated the African Unity for Renaissance and Knowledge Exchange series of conferences since the last six years. He is a founding scientific advisor to ´the African Solar network, founding chairman of the Network of Ethiopian scholars.
He is a founding board member of Globelics, focusing research on the challenges of building African innovation systems. He has served as scientific board members in a variety of networks including Medalics. He has taken major initiatives for running Doctoral and Masters Academy in various universities in Africa and all over the world. He has been appointed as a consultant on UNESCO’s higher education, Research and Knowledge forum. He has served as a post-doctoral mentor in the NRF national postdoctoral Forum.
Prof. Mammo is the chief editor and in the editorial board of many scholarly international journals including the African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development, the Ethiopian Electronic Journal for Research & Innovation Foresight (Ee-JRIF); Innovation and Development among many others.
He has published in the areas of: international political economy, development economics of innovation and the making of African systems of innovation, and new technologies and development across disciplines. Since 1985, he has produced over 375 publications, including books, chapters in books, and articles in internationally accredited journals and entries in institutional publications.
MARGRETHE HOLM ANDERSEN
Dr. Margrethe Holm Andersen is the Academic coordinator of the AfricaLics Visiting Fellowship Programme (VFP) targeting PhD students (https://www.africalics.org/visiting-phd-fellowship-programme/) and early career development for a few selected post-docs (pilot programme). She is based at the Department of Politics and Society at Aalborg University in Denmark, which also currently hosts the AfricaLics VFP, and support supports development of the AfricaLics network through strategic outreach and support to alumni activities, organization of academies and research conferences etc. She is currently also engaged in a Danida-funded research project on Innovation and Renewable Electrification in Kenyan (www.irekproject.net) and serves as Head of the Board of Danida Fellowship Centre (www.dfcentre.org) and as external examiner at the Centre for Africa Studies (CAS) at Copenhagen University (https://teol.ku.dk/cas/).
Margrethe holds a Master in Public Administration (1988) and a PhD in Social Science from Aalborg University (1992). She has more than 25 years of experience from research, short-term consultancies and planning and implementation of development cooperation, including 15 years with the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Danida. Her main areas of specialisation include planning, management and evaluation of development cooperation, capacity development, gender relations and community development in natural resource management. She has lived and worked in Tanzania for more than five years, but has also lived in Kenya and worked on short term basis in numerous other African countries, including e.g. Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda, Ghana, Niger and Malawi.
Her research work spans from research on gender and politics, to research on innovation, renewable energy and green transitioning; strengthening of national health systems through innovation and capacity development; research capacity building and innovation systems and inclusive innovation in developing economies. In 2016, she co-published the Globelics Thematic Review on the role of innovation in health systems strengthening (http://aauforlag.dk/Shop/organisation-og-ledelse-(1)/health-systems-strengthening-rethinking-the-r.aspx) together with Rebecca Hanlin. She is currently co-editing a book on innovation capabilities for renewable electrification and sustainable industrialization with members of the IREK team and working on various articles related to mentorship and research capacity development.
BENGT AKE LUNDVALL
Professor Lundvall is professor emeritus in economics at Department of Business and Management at Aalborg University. His research is organized around a broad set of issues related to innovation systems, and learning economies. Lundvall was Deputy Director for the Directorate of Science, Technology and Industry 1992-95 and he joined Tsinghua University, Beijing 2003-2006 as Special Term Professor. He has been engaged as advisor for international organisations including Unctad and The World Bank as well as for national governments in all parts of the world. He founded Globelics 2001 and he served as its coordinator until 2018. Since 1988, he has published more than 200 publications in the form of books, journal articles, and book chapters (see www.vbn.aau.dk). His two most cited works are:
Lundvall, B.-Å., (ed.) (2010), National Systems of Innovation: Towards a Theory of Innovation and Interactive Learning. London, Anthem.
Lundvall, B.-Å. and Johnson, B. (1994), ‘The Learning Economy’, Journal of Industry Studies, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 23-42.
More about B-Å Lundvall : https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:b0bda627-bc1e-4d46-8702-93b400e2fc2d
GECI KARURI SEBINA
Dr Karuri-Sebina is an African urban dweller and lifelong learner.
Professionally, she was most recently the Executive Manager: Programmes at South African Cities Network, a peer-based thinktank established by South Africa’s largest cities to focus on improving urban development and governance. She previously worked with National Treasury, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research – CSIR, the Human Sciences Research Council – HSRC, and the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Advanced Policy Institute. Her interests span a range of development foresight, policy, planning and practice topics, particularly relating to urban governance, the built environment and innovation systems. She has over two decades’ experience working and publishing in these fields, including co-editing the Innovation Africa book series (Emerald Books 2016, 2019).
Geci is a Council Member on the South African Council of Planners, a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Witwatersrand School of Governance, and an Research Associate of the Institute for Economic Research on Innovation (IERI) and the National Research Foundation’s South African Research Chair on Innovation and Development. She is also a founding director of the Southern African Node of the Millennium Project, co-founder of ForesightForDevelopment.org Africa, an Associate Editor for the African Journal for Science, Technology, Innovation and Development (Taylor & Francis), and Africa Regional Editor for Foresight: The journal of future studies, strategic thinking and policy (Emerald). Geci is also on the Advisory Board of the global Lifeboat Foundation, and a curator with the Emergence Network.
Geci holds Master’s degrees in Urban Planning, and in Architecture & Urban Design, both from UCLA, and a PhD from the University of Witwatersrand (planning and innovation systems). She is also an Archbishop Desmond Tutu Fellow and an alumnus of the Urban Innovation Leadership Lab (of the Global Leadership Academy).
She lives in Johannesburg with her partner, children, books, and a constant flow of friends and relatives.
DIRAN SOUMONNI
Diran Soumonni is an Associate Professor of Innovation Policy and Management at the Wits Business School in Johannesburg, South Africa. His teaching and research interests include comparative innovation systems, energy innovation, technopreneurship, nanotechnology innovation, and philosophical paradigms in scientific research. Inspired by Global South and Global African thinkers on sustainable industrialisation, his current research advances a more holistic and historically-grounded perspective on ‘endogenous innovation’. He earned a PhD in Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, where he focused on both innovation studies and energy policy.
Prior to embarking on his doctoral studies, Diran worked as a materials engineer in the research commercialisation of energy-efficient display and lighting technologies. He also holds a master’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering (Georgia Institute of Technology), and undergraduate degrees in Physics and Mathematics (Tuskegee University, USA). He currently serves on scientific board of the African Network for the Economics of Learning, Innovation and Competence Building Systems (AFRICALICS). In addition, he has long been active in the Global Network for the Economics of Learning, Innovation and Competence Building Systems (GLOBELICS), and is a scientific committee member of the International Network on Appropriate Technology (INAT).
More information about Dr. Diran Soumonni can be accessed through the link below
About the Event
About the Event
The IN CONVERSATION series portrays prominent innovation scholars of the day in the form of intellectual-biographical interviews.
In the TWELTH event MAMMO MUCHIE will be interviewed by MRGRETHE HOLM ANDERSEN
On 22 MAY, 2023
At 12 PM GMT | 1 pm – London | 8 am – New York | 9 am – Brazil | 1 pm – London | 2 pm – Denmark, France, Italy & South Africa | 3 pm – EAT | 5.30 pm – India | 8 pm China & Malaysia | 9 pm – Tokyo | 10 PM Canberra
The event will be moderated by ANAMIKA . R
Penel of discussants: Bengt Ake Lundvall, Geci Karuri Sebina & Diran Soumonni
Structure of the program (2 hours split up as follows)
Brief intro to the program and introducing MARGRETHE by ANAMIKA. R (5 minutes)
i. Introductory remarks by MARGRETHE and MAMMO is introduced (10 minutes) followed by a conversation between them as follows
ii. Formative years and major influences – (10 minutes)
iii. Contributions, Critique and weakness, Current work & future course – (35 minutes): starting from the important contributions of MAMMO, evolving towards a critical evaluation of his work. Then moving on to discussions on what next given the changing circumstances, how the theoretical contributions are relevant in current circumstances etc. It is a platform to convey what they want future generations to take from MAMMO and how they can further develop standing on the strong base that was created.
iv. Comment on Status of Innovation Economics and what next? – (10 minutes)
Some of the possible questions could be the following. However the speakers can shape it the way they want it to be!· How did you end up doing research on innovation?· What were your most important contributions to the field?· To what degree have you engaged in teamwork and collective research?· How do you see the relationship between economics and innovation studies?· How do you see the role of innovation policy and innovation politics in development strategies?· How do you see the future for innovation studies?· At what level should we study innovation – micro, meso and macro?· What kind of methods should we use to study innovation and economic development?· What kind of advice would you like to give to young innovation scholars?· What role can innovation play in meeting global challenges?
B R E A K – 5 MINUTES
v. Discussion (1 hour): For the 1 hour discussion a panel of scholars [BENGT AKE LUNDVALL, GECI KARURI SEBINA, and DIRAN SOUMONNI] will ask questions or make comments on MAMMO’s work. After MAMMO’s response to them the forum will be open for questions from the general audience.
vi. Finally MARGRETHE winds up the session with a vote of thanks.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
MAMMO MUCHIE
Prof. Muchie is currently a DST/NRF Research Professor at the Faculty of Management Sciences, Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa. He previously served as a Director of the Research Centre on Development Studies and International Relations, Department of History, International and Social Studies, Aalborg University in Denmark.
Muchie was educated in USA and in Europe. He obtained his MPhil and DPhil degrees in development economics and science, technology and innovation studies from Sussex University, England under the supervision of the renowned innovation scholar, the late Freeman of the IDS/SPRU. He also studied Measurement Science in Petrograd, Russia. He has taught and researched at various universities in the USA and Europe including Cambridge University and the Middlesex University (UK); the University of Aalborg (Denmark) and Amsterdam University (Netherlands).
He is a fellow of the South African Academy of Sciences and the African Academy of Sciences. He is also currently adjunct Professor at the Adama Science, Technology University, Addis Ababa University and University of Gondar, Ethiopia. He has been a Senior Research Associate at the Oxford University.
He is currently the chairman of the advisory board of African Talent hub of the Community Interest Company (registration no.10461990) to raise funds for making Africa the talent, innovation, entrepreneurship, creativity and knowledge hub of the world. He has been appointed as special distinguished advisor to the Africa Union’s Student Council and a mentor for the African Entrepreneurship award. He has initiated the African Unity for Renaissance and Knowledge Exchange series of conferences since the last six years. He is a founding scientific advisor to ´the African Solar network, founding chairman of the Network of Ethiopian scholars.
He is a founding board member of Globelics, focusing research on the challenges of building African innovation systems. He has served as scientific board members in a variety of networks including Medalics. He has taken major initiatives for running Doctoral and Masters Academy in various universities in Africa and all over the world. He has been appointed as a consultant on UNESCO’s higher education, Research and Knowledge forum. He has served as a post-doctoral mentor in the NRF national postdoctoral Forum.
Prof. Mammo is the chief editor and in the editorial board of many scholarly international journals including the African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development, the Ethiopian Electronic Journal for Research & Innovation Foresight (Ee-JRIF); Innovation and Development among many others.
He has published in the areas of: international political economy, development economics of innovation and the making of African systems of innovation, and new technologies and development across disciplines. Since 1985, he has produced over 375 publications, including books, chapters in books, and articles in internationally accredited journals and entries in institutional publications.
MARGRETHE HOLM ANDERSEN
Dr. Margrethe Holm Andersen is the Academic coordinator of the AfricaLics Visiting Fellowship Programme (VFP) targeting PhD students (https://www.africalics.org/visiting-phd-fellowship-programme/) and early career development for a few selected post-docs (pilot programme). She is based at the Department of Politics and Society at Aalborg University in Denmark, which also currently hosts the AfricaLics VFP, and support supports development of the AfricaLics network through strategic outreach and support to alumni activities, organization of academies and research conferences etc. She is currently also engaged in a Danida-funded research project on Innovation and Renewable Electrification in Kenyan (www.irekproject.net) and serves as Head of the Board of Danida Fellowship Centre (www.dfcentre.org) and as external examiner at the Centre for Africa Studies (CAS) at Copenhagen University (https://teol.ku.dk/cas/).
Margrethe holds a Master in Public Administration (1988) and a PhD in Social Science from Aalborg University (1992). She has more than 25 years of experience from research, short-term consultancies and planning and implementation of development cooperation, including 15 years with the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Danida. Her main areas of specialisation include planning, management and evaluation of development cooperation, capacity development, gender relations and community development in natural resource management. She has lived and worked in Tanzania for more than five years, but has also lived in Kenya and worked on short term basis in numerous other African countries, including e.g. Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda, Ghana, Niger and Malawi.
Her research work spans from research on gender and politics, to research on innovation, renewable energy and green transitioning; strengthening of national health systems through innovation and capacity development; research capacity building and innovation systems and inclusive innovation in developing economies. In 2016, she co-published the Globelics Thematic Review on the role of innovation in health systems strengthening (http://aauforlag.dk/Shop/organisation-og-ledelse-(1)/health-systems-strengthening-rethinking-the-r.aspx) together with Rebecca Hanlin. She is currently co-editing a book on innovation capabilities for renewable electrification and sustainable industrialization with members of the IREK team and working on various articles related to mentorship and research capacity development.
BENGT AKE LUNDVALL
Professor Lundvall is professor emeritus in economics at Department of Business and Management at Aalborg University. His research is organized around a broad set of issues related to innovation systems, and learning economies. Lundvall was Deputy Director for the Directorate of Science, Technology and Industry 1992-95 and he joined Tsinghua University, Beijing 2003-2006 as Special Term Professor. He has been engaged as advisor for international organisations including Unctad and The World Bank as well as for national governments in all parts of the world. He founded Globelics 2001 and he served as its coordinator until 2018. Since 1988, he has published more than 200 publications in the form of books, journal articles, and book chapters (see www.vbn.aau.dk). His two most cited works are:
Lundvall, B.-Å., (ed.) (2010), National Systems of Innovation: Towards a Theory of Innovation and Interactive Learning. London, Anthem.
Lundvall, B.-Å. and Johnson, B. (1994), ‘The Learning Economy’, Journal of Industry Studies, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 23-42.
More about B-Å Lundvall : https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:b0bda627-bc1e-4d46-8702-93b400e2fc2d
GECI KARURI SEBINA
Dr Karuri-Sebina is an African urban dweller and lifelong learner.
Professionally, she was most recently the Executive Manager: Programmes at South African Cities Network, a peer-based thinktank established by South Africa’s largest cities to focus on improving urban development and governance. She previously worked with National Treasury, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research – CSIR, the Human Sciences Research Council – HSRC, and the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Advanced Policy Institute. Her interests span a range of development foresight, policy, planning and practice topics, particularly relating to urban governance, the built environment and innovation systems. She has over two decades’ experience working and publishing in these fields, including co-editing the Innovation Africa book series (Emerald Books 2016, 2019).
Geci is a Council Member on the South African Council of Planners, a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Witwatersrand School of Governance, and an Research Associate of the Institute for Economic Research on Innovation (IERI) and the National Research Foundation’s South African Research Chair on Innovation and Development. She is also a founding director of the Southern African Node of the Millennium Project, co-founder of ForesightForDevelopment.org Africa, an Associate Editor for the African Journal for Science, Technology, Innovation and Development (Taylor & Francis), and Africa Regional Editor for Foresight: The journal of future studies, strategic thinking and policy (Emerald). Geci is also on the Advisory Board of the global Lifeboat Foundation, and a curator with the Emergence Network.
Geci holds Master’s degrees in Urban Planning, and in Architecture & Urban Design, both from UCLA, and a PhD from the University of Witwatersrand (planning and innovation systems). She is also an Archbishop Desmond Tutu Fellow and an alumnus of the Urban Innovation Leadership Lab (of the Global Leadership Academy).
She lives in Johannesburg with her partner, children, books, and a constant flow of friends and relatives.
DIRAN SOUMONNI
Diran Soumonni is an Associate Professor of Innovation Policy and Management at the Wits Business School in Johannesburg, South Africa. His teaching and research interests include comparative innovation systems, energy innovation, technopreneurship, nanotechnology innovation, and philosophical paradigms in scientific research. Inspired by Global South and Global African thinkers on sustainable industrialisation, his current research advances a more holistic and historically-grounded perspective on ‘endogenous innovation’. He earned a PhD in Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, where he focused on both innovation studies and energy policy.
Prior to embarking on his doctoral studies, Diran worked as a materials engineer in the research commercialisation of energy-efficient display and lighting technologies. He also holds a master’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering (Georgia Institute of Technology), and undergraduate degrees in Physics and Mathematics (Tuskegee University, USA). He currently serves on scientific board of the African Network for the Economics of Learning, Innovation and Competence Building Systems (AFRICALICS). In addition, he has long been active in the Global Network for the Economics of Learning, Innovation and Competence Building Systems (GLOBELICS), and is a scientific committee member of the International Network on Appropriate Technology (INAT).
More information about Dr. Diran Soumonni can be accessed through the link below https://www.wits.ac.za/staff/academic-a-z-listing/s/diransoumonniwitsacza/
ANAMIKA . R
