CHS: Small: Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship Cultures between Ghana, South China, and Silicon Valley

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

This research will investigate contemporary social and technological processes that bring together and motivate specific kinds of leaders shaping transnational networks of design and innovation in computing and communication technologies. Ethnographic research of tech entrepreneurship cultures in Accra (Ghana), Shenzhen (China), and Silicon Valley (USA) will document the complex reality of global technology production. Who is at the forefront of molding these emergent relations? What are the daily practices in the design and implementation of new technologies between these regions, and what are the social, cultural and economic processes that shape them? In both the high-end spaces of technology production and in the street-side low-tech stalls, technology entrepreneurs combine a range of tech skills and business acumen across borders to design, acquire, modify and distribute information technologies. All of these developments speak to a larger and currently unfolding transformation of where and how technology design and innovation take place. By focusing on innovation and entrepreneurship cultures, this project fosters a nuanced understanding of how models of technology production are changing in a world that is growing more connected globally. It also shows how both resource-rich and resource-constrained environments are innovating transnationally, and identifies what can be learned from them. Specifically, the research engages with two groups of innovators: 1) transnational tech entrepreneurs making software and hardware products; 2) hardware sellers and manufacturing entrepreneurs who assemble, distribute and repair electronic devices. The first group is often found in start-ups, incubators, and tech hubs whereas the second group works from factories, repair shops, and electronic markets. While each of these works in particular networks, they are increasingly coming together as hardware prototyping becomes more affordable and software development readily available. The researchers will engage with both groups across their sites of operation, observing and interviewing them as is standard in ethnographic study. The underlying goal is to identify how circulating concepts in tech entrepreneurship and innovation like start-up culture, design thinking, and Internet of Things shape both local strategies and transnational relations of technology production.