Assisting South Africa to prepare for discontinuous change and the future of production

During 2018, Shawn Cunningham, was contracted by the Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS) to assist with research on several research papers. This series of papers was commissioned by the Future Industrial Production Technologies Chief Directorate of the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti). This unit is focused on preparing South African industry for the fourth industrial revolution.

Saul Levin (TIPS) directed the project, and Dr Shawn Cunningham of Mesopartner was the lead researcher and author.

The first paper in the series is titled: 

Framing the concepts that underpin discontinuous technological change.
The paper takes the form of a literature study on the topic of technological change, innovation and building technological capabilities. For this paper, research and content contributions were also made by Mbofholowo Tsedu (TIPS), Prof Dave Kaplan (University of Cape Town and TIPS Research Fellow), Bhavna Deonarain (TIPS) and Wendy Nyakabawo (TIPS).

Other papers in the series are:

World Economic Forum and the fourth industrial revolution in South Africa
This paper focuses on the fourth industrial revolution and the concept as promoted by the World Economic Forum, international consultancies, governments and multinational firms.

Mapping the meso space that enables technological change, productivity improvement and innovation in the manufacturing sector
This paper focuses on meso organisations and policies that strengthen the technological capability of the country or an industry to enable change, adaptation and economic resilience. 

Technological change and sustainable mobility: An overview of global trends and South African developments, where Bhavna Deonarain was the lead author.
This paper focuses on technological change and the developments in the sustainable mobility topic in South Africa.