Work

Connecting capabilities in highly unequal developing countries: the case of the Square Kilometre Array telescope in South Africa

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Innovation and skills development require interactive capabilities to function effectively. Interactive capabilities mediate between skills supply and skills demand actors in an innovation system, and in the knowledge economy more broadly. This article investigates such interactive capabilities, and the manner in which they facilitate labour market alignment. Within a case-study focus on the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope in South Africa, we investigate how organisational capabilities, structures, and mechanisms facilitate or constrain interaction between the SKA and its network partners, including universities, firms, intermediaries, and a technical college. This illustrates how pockets of excellence within an unequal South African skills and innovation landscape were effectively connected in order to build a critical mass of skills and technologies that were highly competitive on the international stage. This shows how, in highly unequal developing countries, interactive capabilities form a lever for access to the global science and technology frontier.

Source: Human Science Research Council SA

DOI: 10.14749/32385198

Author: Human Sciences Research Council

Language: English

Topic: University-Industry-Government Innovation Models

Subfield: Management of Technology and Innovation

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Industry, innovation and infrastructure, Partnerships for the goals, Reduced inequalities, Decent work and economic growth, Quality education

Open Access status: green

Funder: Human Sciences Research Council

OpenAlex ID: W7162209570

FWCI:

Cites:

Cited by:

Related to: