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The purpose of this paper is to stir the deliberation on understanding grassroots innovation (GI) phenomenon through the lived experience approach and attempt to address the existing void in current literature.

This paper outlines a human science research approach for studying the subjective reality embedded in the GI phenomenon. Such an approach provides a better and more bottom-up understanding of the underlying individual and interpersonal dynamics shaping the GI.

This study provides a richer understanding of the underlying individual and interpersonal dynamics shaping the GI phenomena. This may serve as an aid for future research on scaling, managing GI and developing entrepreneurial capabilities of the grassroots innovators (GIrs). The study also confirms that no single unilateral theory can fully explain the lived experiences of the GIrs at the ideation, opportunity recognition, prototyping and scaling stage of GI. Rather, it is quintessential to have an integrated holistic perspective for understanding GI. This study also highlights the importance of hermeneutic phenomenology in pro-poor innovation research and practice in the near future.

This paper’s main limitation is whether the findings can be generalized in a wider context. The authors acknowledge this limitation. However, the purpose of this study is not to generalize the findings but rather provide a contextual understanding of what constitutes the lived experiences of GI. The authors recommend that a future study covering greater number of GIrs across India be undertaken to gain a better appreciation of the bigger picture.

Systematic approaches for tapping into GI are conspicuously non-existent and hence a contextual understanding through the proposed holistic lens will assist in thriving of the GI phenomena in South Asian countries such as India.

Globally, poverty has been a persistent problem despite decades of unprecedented growth. The purpose of this paper is to deliberate on a sustainable livelihoods and poverty eradication approach in an African context.

The paper aims to bridge the gaps in poverty eradication strategies in East Africa by examining recent literature on livelihoods approaches and poverty eradication approaches.

Safari tourism is one way of connecting poor communities in Kenya to the tourism industry. The development of community conservancies in Kenya presents yet more opportunities for communities to be integrated with the sector. The Africanization of the tourism sector in Kenya is a priority, as communities embrace tourism and poverty eradication measures.

There is a need for the Safari tourism sector to integrate the local community’s indigenous knowledge systems, community social capital and the community’s natural capital with tourism product development and diversification.

The paper draws on applied research and technical analysis of the unique opportunities for enhancing sustainable poverty eradication through the tourism sector in East Africa and, more particularly, a Kenyan context.

This paper aims to investigate whether the sustainable livelihoods approach (SLA) enables an analysis of the complex interrelations and interdependencies between social entrepreneurs (SEs), destination communities’ livelihood assets and related transforming structures and processes. SEs in tourism are regarded as drivers for linking destination communities with enterprises, aiming to create economic benefits and livelihoods.

Data were gathered through participatory action research at a tourism lodge and its foundation, which facilitated agricultural training, and by conducting in-depth interviews with ten key stakeholders. The sustainable livelihoods framework (SLF) served as the theoretical framework.

The SLA enables an analysis of interrelations and interdependencies between various stakeholders and to visualise the way SEs forge the impacts tourism has on livelihoods. The agricultural project did not reach its full potential because of, amongst other factors, competing aims between the profit and non-profit business, resulting in the lack of a clear vision and strategy. Additional challenges were dependency on external funding and a lack of reciprocal communication between the stakeholders involved.

This research is based on one case study, and findings cannot be generalised. Future studies should develop the SLF further, possibly through adaptation and integration of other tools.

The SLF enables researchers to integrate local knowledge and participatory research methods, thus facilitating engagement and learning between different stakeholders.

Through empirical research, this paper adds valuable insights into the applicability of the SLF in the context of social entrepreneurship in tourism.

This paper aims to show how property rights predominantly shape discussions about the governance of natural resources and thereby neglect questions of (collective) identities and alternative solutions to govern natural resources. The purpose is to introduce narratives as an alternative approach to the discussion about the governance of natural resources.

Guided by the question of how we acquire property and what that tells us about our understanding of to whom natural resources belong to, the paper reviews the history of property rights by looking into property theories starting from Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Adam Smith, Immanuel Kant and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. It then takes a closer look at The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) study and the Nagoya Protocol with regard to property rights. Second, the paper introduces the concept of narratives surrounding property rights in the past and present.

Property rights are a social concept dominant in the industrialised world. This has strong implications when looking at the way indigenous people look at natural resources. Mostly, property rights are unknown to them or alternative concepts exist. Yet, documents such as the Nagoya Protocol or the TEEB study presuppose an understanding of property rights originating in European property concepts. A narrative approach to property rights introduces new ideas and looks beyond legislation and policies at the stories people tell about property and natural resources, at property stereotypes and identities and what this might entail for future natural resource governance.

The paper fulfils a need to find alternative approaches to govern natural resources against the background of global environmental challenges.

Musina municipality is one of the driest regions in Limpopo Province, South Africa. It is, like many rural communities within the country, a low-income area. Nonetheless, being embedded within the tourism-orientated landscape of the Vhembe district in Limpopo, it possesses the potential for community-based tourism. This study aims to review the perception and application of tourism development policy in the Municipality using primary and secondary data. The study discovered poor enforcement of tourism development policy paired with a substandard knowledge of sustainable and responsible tourism principles. Consequently, the negative environmental impacts of tourism activities had exacerbated. The study recommends a need for improved policy implementation and strategies to advance local communities’ livelihoods while also managing natural resources.

Traditional cultural expression (TCE) includes music, dance, art, designs, names, signs and symbols, performances, ceremonies, architectural forms, handicrafts and narratives or many other artistic or cultural expressions [World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO)]. To constitute TCEs, the expressions must form part of the identity and heritage of a traditional or indigenous community and need to be passed down from generation to generation (Kuprecht, 2014). This paper aims to analyse the protection of TCE in Malaysia by focusing on the Mah Meri tribe. This paper examines copyright over TCE, recordation as a means of preserving a dying tradition and customary practices and native law.

Information is drawn from personal discussions with the weavers and carvers of the Mah Meri tribe, and a focus group discussion with subject matter experts. As a way of comparison, a personal visit has been made to Sarawak Biodiversity Centre, Sarawak Native Courts, the Dayak Iban Association and Dayak Bidayuh Association.

The research found that copyright law has no specific provision for the protection of TCEs. Customary practices of the indigenous people and the native law of Sarawak have limited effect outside their traditional domain. Recordation and documentation of TCEs are the prime initiatives, but the documents or the recordings do not carry any legal status.

The research is limited only to the Mah Meri tribe with a comparison drawn to the Dayak Iban and Dayak Bidayuh tribe.

The research examines the practical implications of copyright and recording and documentation of cultural expression in Malaysia.

The research sets to unearth and highlight the ideation process in a tribal setting and how that clashes with the formal creation setting in a modern intellectual property system.

This paper was presented at the IAITL Congress 2013. It also appeared in the Conference Proceedings edited by Slyvia Kieerkgard, but it has not been published in any journals.