We reconsider the issue of proving large-scale spatial homogeneity of the Universe, given isotropic observations about us and the possibility of source evolution in both numbers and luminosities. Two theorems make precise the freedom available in constructing cosmological models that will fit the observations. They make it quite clear that homogeneity cannot be proven without either a fully determinate theory of source evolution, or availability of distance measures that are independent of source evolution. We contrast this goal with the standard approach that assumes spatial homogeneity a priori, and determines source evolution functions on the basis of this assumption.

We show that there are no new consistent cosmological perfect fluid solutions when in an open neighbourhood of an event the fluid kinematical variables and the electric and magnetic Weyl curvature are all assumed to be rotationally symmetric about a common spatial axis, specializing the Weyl curvature tensor to algebraic Petrov type D. The consistent solutions of this kind are either locally rotationally symmetric, or are subcases of the Szekeres dust models. Parts of our results require the assumption of a barotropic equation of state. Additionally we demonstrate that local rotational symmetry of perfect fluid cosmologies follows from rotational symmetry of the Riemann curvature tensor and of its covariant derivatives only up to second order, thus strengthening a previous result.

Innovation is key to industrialization in Africa and must be aligned with industrial policy. A challenge for African countries is to design and implement innovation and industrial policies that take into account the unique structural nature of African economies, in which the informal sector is prevalent. This paper argues that a measurement programme focused on innovation in the context of local economic development is imperative for setting industrial and innovation policy in Africa. Policies tend to speak and respond to those phenomena that have been subjected to measurement programmes. Is there space for designing new measures of innovation in Africa that include the informal sector? We propose a novel methodology and framework for measuring informal sector innovation, based on a local innovation and production systems approach. We end the paper with a proposal for using the evidence gathered from this methodology and a continental strategy that lends itself to direct policy intervention that has local economic development and upgrading of value chains as a goal.

South Africa’s poor economic performance in recent years has prompted calls by policymakers for structural transformation. To break the impasse, a stronger focus on innovation is one strategy the country has articulated through a new White Paper on Science, Technology and Innovation. Writing from this policy context, we adapt the revised contingent effectiveness model of technology transfer by including indigenous knowledge as a transfer object and emphasizes citizen needs and reparations as part of the demand environment, and appropriation as a transfer medium. Analytically, our use of this adaptation is to critically reflect on the typology of indicators produced in the first South African national survey of intellectual property and technology transfer at publicly financed research institutions. We find the dimension of least representation but presumably greatest significance in the typology is that of ‘public value’. Our contention is that the output-based and commercially-biased indicators of technology transfer activity, which predominate in the typology, are insufficient to inform decision-making on technology transfer policy in a context of profound national socio-economic challenges and deep historical legacies of indigenous knowledge misappropriation. Broader evaluation data would form a richer, more inclusive evidence-base to inform new investments, as well as ongoing policy assessment, at both institutional and national level.