Open innovation at different levels for higher climate risk resilience

Abstract

As climate variability is increasing, creating knowledge networks is becoming more and more important for bringing in, or leveraging the embedded resilience in the communities through cross-pollination of ideas, resources and insitutional linkages. Communities have developed knowledge systems around climate mediated environmental changes since time immemorial. Some social groups have capacity to cope with stress better. They have homeostatic advantage due to either accumulated surplus (Burton, 2001) or access to institutions, technology and social networks (Adger, 2003) . However, these knowledge systems often remain limited as isolated islands or small local networks resulting into asymmetries of knowledge at inter or intra-community level. Intermediary organizations become important to bridge the gap that exist among communities within the informal sector and also between the formal and informal sector. There organizations and platforms like The Honey Bee Network have been able to facilitate both horizontal exchanges, people to people learning and sharing; and vertical exchanges, connecting the informal actors with the formal system. The framework in this paper helps in studying the difference in different components of Open Innovation System through their degree of openness of sharing, self-governance and self-regulation. We explore the different activities and institutions of The HB Network to study the degree of openness and how they contribute to make the system which has now existed for 26 years, more sustainable. We draw lessons for other institutions, organizations, communities who strive towards an autopoietic system i.e. self-designed, self-organized and self-governed system with a feedback system from within and outside, making the whole innovation and knowledge ecosystem sustainable towards the changing and fluctuating environment.