Abstract
Both the field of Development and discipline of Design were conceived from agendas of capitalist driven economic growth. Despite having to stand against this current, a minority of practitioners and academics in both these arenas have critically realigned their intentions towards more human-centred ideals. This Doctoral thesis adds new knowledge to this pursuit through the use of an original theoretical framework that combines both Activity Theory and the Capabilities Approach to systemically explore how people innovate technology. Within the complex Johannesburg food system, this study made use of an embedded multiple-case study of seven innovative small-scale urban farmers to explore why and how they innovate technology. The use of activity system modelling enabled the complex contradictions within and between the various aspects of the participant farmers’ technology innovation activity systems to become more evident. Despite significant capability limitations in terms of their own education, skills, land tenure and access to labour, it was found that the farmers’ innovated technology as a means to extend and function capabilities, particularly with regards to gaining more control over their material environments. However, there were trade-offs, and it was found that a few of the capability extensions were at the expense of other capabilities. The participant farmers’ actions were contextualised within the precarious positions that most of them found themselves as marginalised Black urban farmers in post-apartheid South Africa. Due to this, a key finding was that the participant farmers tended to seed their innovation activities from their social systems as opposed to their technical systems...
D.Litt. et Phil. (Development Studies)