Chasing Innovation: Making Entrepreneurial Citizens in Modern India

In 2017, the South Korean government presented a policy slogan “I-Korea 4.0” based on its foundational aims of “intelligence,” “innovation,” “inclusion,” and “interaction.” According to policy makers, the policy brand is a combination of four values that begin with the same syllable, meaning “human (人)” and pronounced “in” in Korean, emphasizing that it will lead to a fourth industrial revolution through human-centered innovative growth. Reflecting on past mistakes in neglecting to address social problems or improve the quality of people’s lives due to the pursuit of uneven economic growth, the government vowed to “take the fruits of economic growth to a ‘human-centered economy’ where all people enjoy the fruits of economic growth together” through innovation (Presidential Committee 2017). If so, in what way do the values of “innovation,” “inclusion,” and “human-centeredness” legitimize one another?Who in a global society has the power to imagine and talk of the values of “innovation,” “inclusion,” and “human-centeredness” that are prevailing not only in Korea but also around the world? An interesting new book by anthropologist Lilly Irani, Chasing Innovation: Making Entrepreneurial Citizens in Modern India, seeks critical answers to these questions through a historical study of development policy in India and fieldwork in design studios. The purpose of Irani’s book is not to explore the factors that led to the creation of innovative companies in India, but instead she attempts an anthropological approach to the notion of innovation. Rather than imposing any static meaning on the term, Irani calls for the concept of innovation to be viewed as “categories forged through efforts by state and capital to manufacture common sense” (21). By tracing the practices of governments and corporations, NGOs, philanthropies, pedagogues, designers, and the like seeking solutions to India’s social problems, such as poverty, Irani sees their activities as a process of the emergence and operation of what she calls entrepreneurial citizenship. The entrepreneurial citizen, who belongs to “an imagined community of consumers, beneficiaries, and fellow entrepreneurs,” emphasizes that all members of