If Freeman had seen the COVID-19 crisis. Reflections over the need for global congruence

ABSTRACT The objective of this short comment is to reflect on Freeman’s concept of congruence from his 2002 article ‘Continental, national and sub-national innovation systems—complementarity and economic growth’, in the new COVID-19 word. There, Freeman argued about the need for coherence between the different nations’ sub-systems and between the national, continental and global spheres in the matter of development. The emphasis was on the different types of (in)congruence of the different sub-systems of societies – e.g. education, science, technology, politics, culture, among others– that led to specific (under)development paths. The COVID – 19 crisis poses a new stage in the globalization process, and development is still a global challenge, both in terms of preventing new crises and overcoming future ones. Connecting the thoughts of Freeman to these challenges might contribute to a necessary renewed debate about development in current times.