Stories from STEPS: Float like a Fab Lab, sting like a Honey Bee

The second in a series of digital stories from the STEPS Centre looks at movements and experiences of ‘grassroots innovation’ and ‘inclusive innovation’ around the world, and asks how they might change how people think about making, producing and consuming things.

Read the story now on Medium: Float like a Fab Lab, sting like a Honey Bee

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Innovations around the world

The story explores the meaning and significance of Fab Labs and other forms of digital fabrication that communities can participate in; looks back at the movement for ‘socially useful production’ including the Lucas Plan in the UK and Europe in the 1970s and 80s, and today’s Honey Bee network in India, a movement which identifies, shares and supports grassroots innovations.

Future work at STEPS on this theme will look at the roles which grassroots access to tools can play in opening up pathways to increased environmental sustainability and social justice.

The story draws on the work of our project on grassroots innovation: historical and comparative perspectives. It was written with help and advice from Adrian Smith of the STEPS Centre, and draws on research by Adrian Smith, Dinesh Abrol at the Centre for Studies in Science Policy at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Elisa Arond at Clark University, and Mariano Fressoli at CENIT / Centro STEPS América Latina.


Find out more

Read the story on Medium: Float like a Fab Lab, sting like a Honey Bee

View our project on Grassroots innovation: historical and comparative perspectives

View our ‘hot topic’ on Inclusive innovation

Other stories

Read about our first digital story on waste pickers in India: Waste not, want not

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