Systemic innovation requires dismantling extractive work cultures: how remote placements can redistribute knowledge and power
Original framing: “Why keeping remote work environment options open is key for business innovation” — The Conversation - Global
The 'open innovation' model echoes 19th-century colonial science, where European institutions extracted knowledge from colonized regions without compensation or recognition. The rise of corporate R&D labs in the 20th century was built on the unpaid labor of women and racialized workers, a pattern that persists in 'open lab' programs today. Historical parallels show how 'innovation' has often been a tool of domination, whether through patenting Indigenous medicines or exploiting Global South researchers. The current framing ignores this legacy, presenting innovation as a neutral, meritocratic process.
The corporate narrative of 'remote work as innovation' is a Trojan horse for extractive capitalism, masking historical patterns of knowledge theft under the guise of progress.
Indigenous frameworks like kaitiakitanga and Ubuntu reveal how innovation can be communal and reciprocal, while trickster figures expose the absurdity of corporations presenting themselves as champions of creativity. The solution lies not in tweaking remote work policies but in dismantling the structural inequalities that make 'open innovation' a one-way street. This requires legally binding reciprocity agreements, worker-owned platforms, and publicly funded commons that prioritize equity over corporate control. The future of innovation must be co-created with marginalized communities, not extracted from them—echoing the wisdom of Anansi, who taught that knowledge is woven through relationships, not owned by individuals.