ABSTRACT
The idea of the de-centred/de-centring of the cultures of innovation is a response to the centrality and pre-eminence that certain ideas and notions of innovation have come to occupy in literature, policy frameworks and in the mainstream discourse. The diversity in the laboratory, the multiple realities of society and different realities of innovation notwithstanding, the focus of these dominant narratives is limited and centred on a few elements. While one culture of innovation moves in a linear fashion from research in the laboratory to a product in the landfill, there are other cultures of innovation that are inherently cyclic and iterative. Many other cultures of innovation exist simultaneously, and importantly these intersect with each other in different ways. What this implies is that different worldviews, knowledge systems and cultures of innovation are already at play, even if in a highly unequal world where many are forced to remain on the peripheries and have to struggle to survive.
