Organizing grassroots innovators: The Honey Bee Network Prashant Rajan Purdue University

This on-going project investigates how knowledge networks emerge through the organization of grassroots innovators1 during the design, development and use of technological innovations. Ethnographic and case-research methods have been employed to understand: (a) How grassroots innovators organize to innovate within local communities, (b) How grassroots innovators are identified and organized by the Honey Bee Network2 (HBN), (c) How HBN situates grassroots knowledge and innovations that emerge from local contexts and informal practices within formal knowledge systems that are constituted by scientific, technological and entrepreneurial discourses, and, (d) How grassroots organizing processes translate innovations into sustainable entrepreneurial practices. The project extends contemporary innovation research by juxtaposing the contributions of informal and formal organizational networks to organizing innovation and invites scholars engage with innovating communities in globally relevant ways and contexts.

The term grassroots innovator refers here to individuals whose formal education is limited to secondary education up to grade ten and who have designed and developed unique agricultural, mechanical or electrical technologies to solve problems in their local communities without receiving initial financial aid or material support from formal organizations operating in the private or public sectors. 2 The Honey Bee Network2 (HBN) is a global network of innovators, agriculturists, scholars, policy makers, entrepreneurs and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) engaged in organizing grassroots innovators2 and knowledge holders (Gupta, 1997). Over the past 21 years, HBN has identified and documented over 100,000 grassroots ideas, innovations and knowledge practices. Information on HBN and its activities may be obtained at the websites maintained by its member organizations: (a) the Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI) (www.sristi.org), (b) the Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network (GIAN) (http://west.gian.org/innovations.php, and http://north.gian.org/innovation_catalogue), and, (c) the National Innovation Foundation (NIF) (http://nif.org.in).