Technology and Innovation

TechInn - ISSN 2399-8571 - © ISTE Ltd

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Biological inputs constitute one of the main agricultural innovations in response to the crisis associated with the use of chemical products. Microorganisms applied to plant nutrition and pest control thus emerge as key technologies in the transition toward sustainable agriculture. However, their development depends not only on technical aspects but also on the regulatory system that institutionalizes them. This article presents findings from an exploratory study on the production of biological inputs in Argentina and their forms of institutionalization. It analyses the context in which these innovations have emerged, the actors involved, and the system of regulations and public policies that regulate, promote, or constrain their development. Methodologically, the study combines documentary analysis with secondary and quantitative industry data from official sources, along with in-depth interviews and participant observation. The results show that, although biological inputs constitute an established technology in the country, supported by an industrial structure that reveals the presence of local firms, their institutionalization is contradictory, marked by advances and setbacks that condition their consolidation.

Due to the negative impacts associated with intensive use of chemical pesticides, biopesticides are gradually gaining recognition as a sustainable and effective alternative for managing biotic stresses in agriculture. This article provides a global overview of pesticide usage alongside the rising trend of biopesticides, with a special emphasis on Africa. Recent data analysis reveals significant regional disparities: the Americas, Europe, and certain Asian regions lead in both pesticide consumption and the number of registered biopesticide products. Conversely, Africa exhibits relatively low chemical pesticide use, averaging just 0.7 kg/ha in 2023. Meanwhile, several African countries are showing promising advancements in the adoption of biocontrol methods. The article explores the key factors driving these trends and identifies levers to promote the development of biocontrol across the continent.

In Cuba, the aim is to guarantee pork production in large-scale intensive systems by seeking efficient and safe alternatives for consumers and the environment. Prebiotics and probiotics are among the most widely used and harmless options. This research aimed to contribute to the introduction of efficient microorganism (EM) technology in pig farming at the Carnes D’Tres SME through a process of technological innovation. EM produced both inside and outside the province of Ciego de Ávila were evaluated from technical, economic, and logistical perspectives, and the effectiveness of EM as a feed additive in the diet of fattening pigs was assessed. According to the technical, economic and logistical feasibility study, it is cheaper, more practical and safer to purchase RH-Vigía EM in its solid phase and manufacture the liquid and stabilised phases on the farm than to purchase any of the other EM in their stabilised liquid phase. Adding EM to pig feed also had a positive effect, particularly during the initial weeks of fattening. It reduced morbidity, increased the live weight of the group and lowered feed costs per unit of weight gained compared to animals whose diet did not include the bioproduct.

This article offers a critical analysis of how the concept of innovation is used in the French naval defense sector. Drawing on qualitative research conducted among engineers, sailors, and institutional decision-makers, it highlights the ambivalence of the term: at once an instrument of institutional legitimation and a performative category that orients action. Innovation here is embedded in power dynamics, revealing a divide between “top-down” innovations driven by the state and industry, and “bottom-up” innovations emerging from the field. Two visions are thus opposed: one that values technological rupture, complexity, and long-term projection, and another that prioritizes adaptability, simplicity, and practical mastery of equipment. This tension reshapes skills, roles, and professional hierarchies, while raising a central question: who actually holds the power to innovate within the Navy? Although open innovation promotes broad participation, the actual influence of frontline personnel on major strategic orientations remains limited. Far from being a neutral concept, innovation functions as an analyzer of political relations, structuring the dynamics between institutional elites and operational actors. The analysis reveals a growing sense of dispossession of operational know-how in favor of central stakeholders who possess the capacity to envision the future. Innovation thus becomes a lever for redistributing symbolic power in the making of organizational change.

In turbulent and uncertain environments, organizations increasingly rely on temporary structures to enhance their adaptability. This study investigates the role of task forces within the aerospace supply chain in developing the microfoundations of dynamic capabilities. Based on participant observation and interviews with supply chain actors, we identify how task forces, initially conceived as temporary crisis-response tools, evolve into adaptive mechanisms that foster responsiveness, collaboration, and strategic flexibility. Our findings highlight that while task forces can catalyze learning and coordination, their prolonged use may blur their temporary nature and shape emerging dynamic capabilities.

At the start of the 21st century, global warming is a topic of paramount importance in economic, social, political, and, inevitably, ecological terms. Reducing CO2 emissions, or decarbonization, is the goal for the next 20 to 30 years, via carbon neutrality. There are two main options for achieving this goal. The first involves a technical escape, focusing on technical innovation. The second, on the contrary, emphasizes exclusively energy efficiency and the redefinition of social needs by supporting a new socioeconomic model.

This article presents, with an explicit angle on decarbonization, the research that we carried out in the book: Ecological Transition and Technological Change, ISTE Volume 42, London 2024.The article highlights and describes three main decarbonization paths, corresponding to three ecological transition issues: decarbonization as mitigation through capture and storage of emitted C02 with an unchanged technical and economic system; decarbonization as a solution to the ecological transition matter, centered on technological mutation, introducing decarbonized technologies as a replacement of fossil-fuel-based technologies, mainly combustion technologies. Finally, in view of the difficulty of achieving a satisfactory level of decarbonization, a third ecological transition issue is taking shape, namely the reorganization of our production, consumption and transport patterns, based essentially on sobriety and a reduction in the level of activity. The importance of the challenge means that these three decarbonization systems will continue to work in synergy.

Deux spécialistes de la décarbonation ont été interrogés en février 2024 afin de connaitre leur analyse des transformations techniques et industrielles actuelles et à venir de la décarbonation. Quelle est la stratégie des grands groupes industriels français en la matière ? Les technologies développées à l’heure actuelle sont-elles fiables ? La décarbonation suppose l’électrification des procédés industriels. Mais, comment produire de l’électricité « verte », puisque pour produire de l’énergie, il faut de l’énergie. Quelles sont les technologies utilisées actuellement et en devenir ? Peut-on décarboner l’industrie, sans remettre en question le modèle industriel qui s’est progressivement construit depuis la révolution industrielle ?

Long considered as “playing the Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, geoengineering, which refers to a wide range of large-scale technical interventions on the climate system, has gradually gained credibility over the past few years and is now being seriously considered in international climate debates. In this paper, we aim to analyze this process of normalizing geoengineering within international discussion arenas. This process stems from the integration of a compensation logic through the classical lens of decarbonization: climate agreements now distinguish between the optional reduction of emissions that can be ’mitigated,’ that is, captured through carbon capture techniques, and the mandatory reduction of emissions that cannot be mitigated. This compensation logic has the dual effect of normalizing CC(U)S and carbon geoengineering, while rendering some decarbonization measures optional. The question we will address in this paper is to what extent all of this points to a new horizon: the normalization of the prospect of overshooting the threshold set by the Paris Agreement, and also the normalization of solar geoengineering, understood as a means of thermally compensating for the failure or, at the very least, the postponement of decarbonization measures. The aim, in essence, will be to study the shift from an economy of promise to one of debt.

For several decades, exponential growth in the use of fossil carbon has created drastic climate disturbances. To mitigate climate change, all uses of virgin fossil carbon must, urgently, be phased out. Many transport sources and industrial processes can easily be electrified and should be where possible. But some sectors like chemical, materials (e.g. lime and steel), aviation and maritime transport will continue to use carbon and the virgin fossil used today will need to be substituted to meet climate neutrality targets. Using CO2 to replace fossil carbon in sectors that will still need hydrocarbons is a key solution to “defossilise” our economy. The concept of Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) is a broad term that covers processes that capture CO2 from flue and process gases or directly from the air and convert it into a variety of products such as fuels, chemicals, and materials. No precise global estimate of the potential mitigation role of CCU technologies exists to date, because of uncertainties in renewable electricity cost scenarios and the low granularity of models that simulate different CCU options. However, CCU technologies have the potential to play a significant role in the mitigation of climate change as described in the latest report from Working Group 3 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).