Enculturing innovation : Indian engagements with nanotechnology

This thesis tries to understand the ‘Culture(s) of innovation’ in nanoscience and technology (NS&T) research for development in India. It tries to understand the character of techno-scientific knowledge practices within five NS&T labs and their own location within the broad political, social, cultural and developmental contexts of contemporary India. It describes and interprets how people, their technical and social institutions and their combined practices influence and negotiate a particular technology in understanding it, and using it to meet the ends they seek to meet. It is an account of a ‘culture of innovation’ that links the macro with the micro, and the inside of the lab with the world outside - a world that is a much bigger influence than is generally believed. Using the learnings from the empirical material and the diversity it points to, the thesis concludes with a set of six inter-related steps of how and why innovation is encultured.