This 5 years Trilateral Chair program is being implemented by ACTS in partnership with the University of Johannesburg (South Africa) and the University of Sussex.
The research program has the ambition to develop and test a new theoretical framework to understand transformation, in the context of 4IR and from an African perspective. The motivation is the need to unpack the social and technological relationships that explain the rate, direction and patterns of (radical) innovation adoption, diffusion and use.
This is a process involving not only technologies but also changes in consumer practices and needs, the skills and capabilities of all actors involved, infrastructures, governance, regulation, industry structure and cultural meaning of the socio-technical system involved. The main aim is to ensure that 4IR potential is harnessed for the specific conditions in Sub-Saharan Africa and in particular South Africa and Kenya, but with the African continent in mind.
The main research questions pursued are (a) how are changes in socio-technical systems influenced by the rapid technological developments under the 4IR? and (b) how can the transformative potential of these changes be exploited to encourage sustainable development?
Over the course of the program, a total of eight PhD projects will be supported with full scholarships, two of which are based at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology (JOOUST) and hosted by ACTS. A sub-contract agreement was signed between ACTS and JOOUST in 2020. ACTS is responsible for funding the program’s collaborative activities in Kenya. As the project facilitating organization, JOOUST provides training, mentoring, capacity building and administrative support to students.
Other activities implemented within the program include 1) conversation between the PhD students and authors. This platform was developed for students and emerging scholars within the Trilateral Chair to engage interactively with key readings written by leading scholars in the field, and to facilitate their incorporation into ongoing and planned research projects. 2) PhD Engagement Week designed to discuss the PhD cohort, provide a platform for students and senior researchers to meet each other, as well as sensitize the students under this program about the different theoretical frameworks and thematic areas relevant for their study. 3) Introduction to Systematic Literature Reviews (SLR) course.
More information about the project can be accessed here.
