ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the case studies in order to identify recurring features and appreciate key differences that, amid the diversity and complexities of any grassroots innovation movements, might nevertheless be instructive. The case studies illustrating grassroots innovation movements include socially useful production in the UK, appropriate technology in South America, people's science movement in India, hackerspaces, fablabs and makerspaces, social technology network in Brazil, and honey bee network in India. Each of the case studies demonstrates how the specific historical context is important to understanding the emergence of a grassroots innovation movement. Contexts were generative of each movement and provided opportunities for them, but contexts simultaneously presented limitations and challenges to movement developments. Emerging movements made sense of these contexts and sought to act in and upon them through the adoption and development of different framings. Dilemmas came in the form of strategic choices over what kinds of spaces to occupy and how to make most effective use of them.
