Building the Innovation Economy: The History of Innovation Policies in South Australia, 1982 to 2011
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Date
2024
Authors
Harms, Rebekah Joyce
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Ankeny, Rachel
Garrett-Jones, Sam (University of Wollongong)
Garrett-Jones, Sam (University of Wollongong)
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Abstract
The closure of General Motors-Holden's South Australian automotive manufacturing plant in 2017, marking an end to automotive manufacturing in Australia, caused a significant blow to the South Australian economy and radically altered the composition of the state’s economy. The decline of South Australia’s traditional manufacturing industry has served to further justify attempts at shifting the state towards more innovative industries. In this thesis, I consider how successive South Australian governments have attempted to build the state’s innovation economy through an exploration of key innovation policies in South Australia from 1982 to 2011. In the thesis, I focus on four examples of innovation policy within science- and technology-related areas. In chapter one, I explore the way in which state governments used education to foster skills that were deemed necessary within the innovation economy. In chapter two, I consider the key role that innovation clusters have played in successive state government's innovation policies. In chapter three, I explore the dual economic and environmental factors which drove the growth of the state’s renewable energy industry. Finally, in chapter four, I trace the debate that occurred around the commercial growth of genetically modified canola. The application of an historical lens to innovation policy has enabled me to determine some of the successes and failures of the state government’s approach to innovation policy. Lessons learned from the South Australian experience will be of relevance to other post-industrial regions which have faced similar challenges as they seek to transition towards an innovation economy.
School/Discipline
School of Humanities
Dissertation Note
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, 2024
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This thesis is currently under embargo and not available.