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Paper Abstracts—In Alphabetical Order of Presenters
29
ENGINEERING PROFESSION FOR SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION
IN THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES.
EKO. J. AKPAMA 1,*, OGBONNAYA. I. OKORO 2
1 Department of Electrical Engineering, Cross River University of Technology,
Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria
2 Department of Electrical Engineering, Micheal Okpara University of Agric,
Umudike, Umuahia, Abia, Nigeria
* Corresponding author. Tel: +234-07063985363, Email: akpamaeko@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
For any economy to strife for sustainable innovation, the engineering
profession must be given its rightful place. This is the profession
that drives the economy of any nation. The awareness, impact and
training, need to be evaluated without which the role or relevance of
engineering will not be noticed. The engineering profession and
engineering infrastructure must be sustained and updated to enhance
industrialization for the globalized economy. In many developing
economies, engineering is not seen as the driver of the economy.
Engineers are used and dumped many a times. In this regard,
this paper discuses engineering profession’s on positive innovation
mostly in the developing countries. For sustainable innovation to
strife, the engineering profession must be taken seriously by stake
holders as regards funding engineering education, providing adequate
engineering infrastructure, manpower development, poverty
reduction through entrepreneurship and creating enabling environment
for engineering practice.
Keywords: Sustainability, University Education, Innovation, Industrialization,
Entrepreneurship, Poverty Reduction.
FOCUS GROUP STRATEGIES IN PROMOTING COMMUNITY AND
ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT
BENNETT ALEXANDER, JANE CONLON*
Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South Africa
*University of Coventry, Coventry, United Kingdom
ABSTRACT
This paper is based on the work of the Tabeisa organisation in promoting
social and commercial entrepreneurship towards community
development and presents a critical perspective on managing Focus
Group Sessions (FGS) that are focused on pertinent development
issues within socially disadvantaged communities. The power relations
that inform ownership and efficacy of community development
projects are interrogated using a framework based on critical theory.
The role of a “higher functioning” project facilitator is investigated in
facilitating an “ownership” discourse.
The experiences around a series of Tabeisa FGS are reported
which were conducted in the process of delivering various and divergent
entrepreneurship development projects. The Is’baya fruit
farming development project in the Eastern Cape was used as a
case study. The paper provides practical insight into the management
of FGS by providing analysis and anecdotal accounts of the
experiences of the “Is’baya” project.
The perceived non-reporting of information by facilitators during
FGS or community exchanges is investigated on the basis of observed
imbalances in the respective dynamics that typically manifest.
This paper consequently focuses on the socio-cultural and
power relationships that may manifest within sessions and potentially
compromise the effective gathering of data and information
against the defined agenda of the project.