Description
This edited volume examines how the Covid-19 pandemic exposed structural tensions in innovation systems and capitalist models in the global economy, with a particular focus on Asian healthcare systems. Structured in three parts, the book first interrogates systemic crises in capitalism and innovation, then analyzes Covid-19 responses as a critical moment for rethinking health governance, and finally presents Asian experiences that challenge dominant models. Chapters draw on comparative political economy, science and technology studies (STS), and health policy to illuminate how Asia s diverse trajectories offer lessons for more inclusive and sustainable innovation.
Written by an international team of scholars, this volume contributes to debates on post-pandemic capitalism, technological development, and global healthcare management by combining conceptual rigor with empirical depth. It will appeal to researchers and advanced students in political economy, health economics and management, innovation studies, STS, and public health more broadly, as well as policymakers in these fields.
Chapter 1: Capitalism, innovations, and health after Covid-19. An Asian perspective: an introduction.- Part I - Systems in crisis? Capitalism, innovation and health: Chapter 2: Anthropogenetic development: Long unnoticed and already in crisis.- Chapter 3: The crisis of capitalism and health innovation: symptoms of a crisis or of success?.- Chapter 4: The Mission Oriented Science, Innovation and Technology (STI) Policies in Japan and Korea with a Focus on Health.- Part II A critical moment and its openings: Covid responses: Chapter 5: Innovation Systems under Crisis: Vaccine Development in Asia and Europe.- Chapter 6: Glocal Health Governance: Organizational Innovations in the Era of Covid-19.- Chapter 7: Frugal Innovations and Health System Resilience. The conceptualization, policy support and forms of frugality during Covid-19 in South India.- Part III Knowledge in action: Asian experiences: Chapter 8: Institutional design, welfare technologies and diffusion of innovation: Stakeholders views regarding care robots in Hong Kong SAR (China), Ireland and Japan.- Chapter 9: Care-led innovation. A new paradigm and an application in the Japanese context of Society 5.0.- Chapter 10: Appropriate technologies, primary health care and the integration of traditional medicines in India.- Chapter 11: Commons and the political economy of access: generics, neo traditional formulations and the dominant intellectual property regime of medicines.- Chapter 12: General conclusion.
Sébastien Lechevalier is Professor of Economics at EHESS, Paris, specializing in Japanese economy and Asian capitalism. His research focuses on innovation systems and socio-economic transformations. He is author of The Great Transformation of Japanese Capitalism and editor of Innovation Beyond Technology. He leads major international projects on care-led innovation and institutional change in Asia.
Jean-Paul Gaudillière is Senior Researcher at Inserm and Professor at EHESS. A historian of science and medicine, his work examines pharmaceutical capitalism, health governance, and global health politics. His recent books include Global Health and the New World Order and Global Health for All.
Kathryn Ibata-Arens is Vincent de Paul Professor of Political Economy and Endowed Professor of Environmental Diplomacy at DePaul University. Her research addresses innovation and entrepreneurship in Asia, biomedical policy, and responsible innovation. Ibata-Arens is the author of Pandemic Medicine and Beyond Technonationalism, and co-founded the Health Network of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE).
Kayo Takuma is Professor of International Politics at Keio University. Her research focuses on global health governance and Asian regional health cooperation. She has published widely on health diplomacy and international political order and served on G7 global health working groups.
