Innovation and equity: places and practices an introduction to the special section

Abstract

Can innovation be made more equitable? The papers in this special issue center equity at the heart of a positive research agenda around innovation. This research agenda relates to practices - the routinized behaviors of social actors - in the innovation process. In this introduction, we discuss how these practices focus on a) access to innovative processes, b) targets of innovation, c) the deployment of technology in firms, d) ownership structures, and e) broader governance. Moreover, practices always occur in a specific place, understood as the distinctive social or power relations that shape how practices, and resistance towards them, emerge.