General seminar arrangements in 2025
- WISER's TRUST seminar is hosted on-line every Wednesday afternoon at 16:00 - 17:00 SA during the teaching semester | For information about WISER's PLANT LIVES seminar, please follow this link.
- Please register on Zoom in advance of the meeting on this link.
- Participants should please read the paper (below) prior to the seminar, which is typically available by the Friday preceding the seminar.
Knowledge and technological innovation transfer for economic development – the case of Eskom
The article explores the transfer of knowledge and technological innovation by Eskom, the state owned vertically integrated South African power utility in South Africa and the rest of the continent in the period between 1997 and 2005 as forms of techno-nationalism, techno-globalisation and technopolitics, hybrids of technical systems and political practice that produce new forms of power and agency. Inherited from the technopolitics of the apartheid regime knowledge and technological innovation, the techno-nationalism of the young democracy and the techno-globalisation of financial and trade liberalisation were all useful in a new democratic regime finding its feet. It is argued that the retreat by Eskom to techno-nationalism explains some of its exnovation that is symbolised by power shortages and collapsing electricity infrastructure.
