Responsible innovation and the reshaping of existing technological trajectories: the hard case of genetically modified crops

In this article, I argue that if frameworks of responsible innovation are to prove successful in aligning innovation dynamics with societal values, they will have to demonstrate their capacities to shape existing technological trajectories, alongside those that remain ‘in-the-making’. Reporting on a major research project as written up in the edited volume, Governing Agricultural Sustainability, I outline the dynamics of and responses to genetically modified (GM) crops in three Global South settings – in Brazil on GM soya, in India on GM cotton and in Mexico on GM maize. Using the ‘anticipation-inclusion-reflexivity-responsiveness’ (AIRR) framework, I explore the potential of responsible innovation to reconfigure the debate on the governance of GM foods and crops and to move the debate away from its current polemic and impasse.