This document discusses social innovation. It makes three key points:
1. Social innovation profoundly changes social systems through new initiatives, products, processes or programs that change routines, resource flows, authority structures or beliefs. Successful innovations have broad, long-lasting impact.
2. For social innovations to solve intractable problems, they must disrupt existing institutions that perpetuate those problems. Innovations with broad, durable impact challenge power structures and beliefs at a systemic level.
3. Achieving scale and longevity is a dynamic process requiring both deliberate efforts to develop and spread innovations, as well as opportunities provided by the broader social context. Both "social entrepreneurs" and "institutional entrepreneurs" play important roles,
Social innovation a new fad in entreprenurship ecosystemPraveen Asokan
Social Innovation
- A New Fad in the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem
This is a blog post written by me for Startup Weekend-Social Innovation-Bangalore held form 29th to 31st May 2015.
Ponencia impartida por Josef Hochgerner, fundador y director científico del Zentrum für Soziale Innovation de Viena, el 3 de julio de 2013 en la II European Summer School of Social Innovation
"The New Responsibility Paradigm: Implications for Strategic Competitiveness"Art Stewart, MPM
Snapshot of my "Futurist Lecture Series" presentation at the 2010 annual conference of the World Future Society in Boston. This PDF has a few sample slides. Want more? Invite me to present!
Social innovation a new fad in entreprenurship ecosystemPraveen Asokan
Social Innovation
- A New Fad in the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem
This is a blog post written by me for Startup Weekend-Social Innovation-Bangalore held form 29th to 31st May 2015.
Ponencia impartida por Josef Hochgerner, fundador y director científico del Zentrum für Soziale Innovation de Viena, el 3 de julio de 2013 en la II European Summer School of Social Innovation
"The New Responsibility Paradigm: Implications for Strategic Competitiveness"Art Stewart, MPM
Snapshot of my "Futurist Lecture Series" presentation at the 2010 annual conference of the World Future Society in Boston. This PDF has a few sample slides. Want more? Invite me to present!
A review of 3 big ideas: Paradigm shift, Neoliberalism vs Gaian Paradigm, Systems change.
See also addendum - Dynamic Diffusion.
Clare Strawn, Ph.D. May 2017
This is an overview report on a 2013 study we conducted of social media content about global warming. It shows that underlying psychological drivers can be discerned from large data sets to reveal implicit structures of a major social discourse.
"Society 2.0: designing an action research into the next civilization" is an updated version of the talk I gave at the "2gether08" unconference in London, July 3, 2008. A downloadable version (complete with clickable links), its context and related conversation can be found in the Jump Time Players blog, http://www.evolutionarynexus.org/jtp_blog .
FALL 2016 WORK & Society Discussion assignment SECTION A Part .docxssuser454af01
FALL 2016 WORK & Society Discussion assignment
SECTION A Part 1 of 2
You will discuss your recommendations for a change in organizational culture in one of two organizations: you have been assigned to discuss the Secret Service (SS) READ the
Secret Service article: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/15/us/politics/secret-service-reshuffling-follows-scandals.html?_r=0
Directions: Answer questions 1 & 2. Be specific paying particular attention to pp. 116 & 117 in the Schein article (below). Label answers 1&2 with SS on the subject line, as you are assigned.
1) Select a level of culture (either artifacts, espoused values or basic assumptions) and briefly describe how it is currently manifested in the organization. What should this level look like after a culture change?
2) Using either socialization by a dominant subculture or leader intervention, what steps should be used to change the culture? In other words, selecting one of these two methods, what would you recommendation happen to change the culture?
{pp. 116 & 117} of Schein Article (Organizational Culture by Edgar H. Schein
nsions have been made, and some preliminary support for the above hypotheses has been forthcoming (Feldman, 1976, 1988; G. R. Jones, 1986). Insofar as cultural evolution is a function of innovative and creative efforts on the part of new members, this line of investigation is especially important. Cultural Dynamics: Natural Evolution Every group and organization is an open system that exists in multiple environments. Changes in the environment will produce stresses and strains inside the group, forcing new learning and adaptation. At the same time, new members coming into the group will bring in new beliefs and assumptions that will influence currently held as- sumptions. To some degree, then, there is constant pres- sure on any given culture to evolve and grow. But just as individuals do not easily give up the elements of their identity or their defense mechanisms, so groups do not easily give up some of their basic underlying assumptions merely because external events or new members discon- firm them. An illustration of "forced" evolution can be seen in the case of the aerospace company that prided itself on its high level of trust in its employees, which was reflected in flexible working hours, systems of self-monitoring and self-control, and the absence of time clocks. When a number of other companies in the industry were discov- ered to have overcharged their government clients, the government legislated a system of controls for all of its contractors, forcing this company to install time clocks and other control mechanisms that undermined the cli- mate of trust that had been built up over 30 years. It remains to be seen whether the company's basic assump- tion that people can be trusted will gradually change or whether the company will find a way to discount the el- 116 February 1990 • American Psychologist
fects of an artifact that is in fundamental c ...
2. From page 89 The Culture Industry encompasses all those.docxfelicidaddinwoodie
2. From page 89: “The Culture Industry encompasses all those sectors involved in the creation and distribution of mass-culture products: television, film, radio, music, magazines, newspapers, books, and the advertisements that sell them. Geared toward entertaining and pacifying the masses, the culture industry administers “mass deception” by churning out a never-ending supply of mass-produced, standardized commodities that “aborts and silences criticism.” Manufactured movie and television stars act as its leading spokespersons, promoting its superficial, conformist vision of the happy life both in their performances and in their revolving appearances on the cycles of vacuous, ever-the-same talk shows.”
First, discuss the concept of technological (or instrumental) rationality and how it has come to form the basis of the dominant ideology in our society.
Next, choose a recent news article and describe how it either supports or refutes the notion that the culture industry administers mass deception.
Technological Rationality
Technological rationality is a way of thinking practically that enables a person to choose on how to get things done or rather to perform some specialized assignments in a productive way, and resolve issues. This can be done by considering the various factors involved with a situation as factors to be controlled. Expansion in the scientific and also technological rationality has been used to allow the number of people which is ever increasing to overcome the concept of material scarcity. This has led or, at minimum, contributed to it becoming or forming a basis as a dominant ideology in the society as many people have adopted it in their day to day living.
The development of current free attempt refashioned monetary and social relations and passed on with it the affirmation that science and progression would produce a dominating life. The adjust of various accommodating, plant, correspondence, and transportation issues, regardless of different things, would change society and decline persevering.
In any case, with progress comes related issues. Such a change was achieved through the distance of work and the ascent of production line framework. In the emphasis of proficiency, ware creation, disentanglement, work synchronization and association as well clears the changes objectivity and anything individual mechanical levelheadedness. According to Appelrouth (2012), the technological rationality theory of action incorporates scrutinizing the behavior of living organization by conceiving it as oriented to end situation attainment.
As per this domain of mechanical reasonability, the rationale behind the loss of force of the reason starts in roots conveying sane stagnated society. (first name??) Fuchs?? characterizes an individual as the main reason as to why there are various crucial gauges and says that no power from outside should interfere with it. Moreover, the judiciousness of the aforementioned incorporates both remo ...
Social marketing is the use of commercial marketing principles and techniques to improve the welfare of people and the physical, social and economic environment in which they live.
A review of 3 big ideas: Paradigm shift, Neoliberalism vs Gaian Paradigm, Systems change.
See also addendum - Dynamic Diffusion.
Clare Strawn, Ph.D. May 2017
This is an overview report on a 2013 study we conducted of social media content about global warming. It shows that underlying psychological drivers can be discerned from large data sets to reveal implicit structures of a major social discourse.
"Society 2.0: designing an action research into the next civilization" is an updated version of the talk I gave at the "2gether08" unconference in London, July 3, 2008. A downloadable version (complete with clickable links), its context and related conversation can be found in the Jump Time Players blog, http://www.evolutionarynexus.org/jtp_blog .
FALL 2016 WORK & Society Discussion assignment SECTION A Part .docxssuser454af01
FALL 2016 WORK & Society Discussion assignment
SECTION A Part 1 of 2
You will discuss your recommendations for a change in organizational culture in one of two organizations: you have been assigned to discuss the Secret Service (SS) READ the
Secret Service article: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/15/us/politics/secret-service-reshuffling-follows-scandals.html?_r=0
Directions: Answer questions 1 & 2. Be specific paying particular attention to pp. 116 & 117 in the Schein article (below). Label answers 1&2 with SS on the subject line, as you are assigned.
1) Select a level of culture (either artifacts, espoused values or basic assumptions) and briefly describe how it is currently manifested in the organization. What should this level look like after a culture change?
2) Using either socialization by a dominant subculture or leader intervention, what steps should be used to change the culture? In other words, selecting one of these two methods, what would you recommendation happen to change the culture?
{pp. 116 & 117} of Schein Article (Organizational Culture by Edgar H. Schein
nsions have been made, and some preliminary support for the above hypotheses has been forthcoming (Feldman, 1976, 1988; G. R. Jones, 1986). Insofar as cultural evolution is a function of innovative and creative efforts on the part of new members, this line of investigation is especially important. Cultural Dynamics: Natural Evolution Every group and organization is an open system that exists in multiple environments. Changes in the environment will produce stresses and strains inside the group, forcing new learning and adaptation. At the same time, new members coming into the group will bring in new beliefs and assumptions that will influence currently held as- sumptions. To some degree, then, there is constant pres- sure on any given culture to evolve and grow. But just as individuals do not easily give up the elements of their identity or their defense mechanisms, so groups do not easily give up some of their basic underlying assumptions merely because external events or new members discon- firm them. An illustration of "forced" evolution can be seen in the case of the aerospace company that prided itself on its high level of trust in its employees, which was reflected in flexible working hours, systems of self-monitoring and self-control, and the absence of time clocks. When a number of other companies in the industry were discov- ered to have overcharged their government clients, the government legislated a system of controls for all of its contractors, forcing this company to install time clocks and other control mechanisms that undermined the cli- mate of trust that had been built up over 30 years. It remains to be seen whether the company's basic assump- tion that people can be trusted will gradually change or whether the company will find a way to discount the el- 116 February 1990 • American Psychologist
fects of an artifact that is in fundamental c ...
2. From page 89 The Culture Industry encompasses all those.docxfelicidaddinwoodie
2. From page 89: “The Culture Industry encompasses all those sectors involved in the creation and distribution of mass-culture products: television, film, radio, music, magazines, newspapers, books, and the advertisements that sell them. Geared toward entertaining and pacifying the masses, the culture industry administers “mass deception” by churning out a never-ending supply of mass-produced, standardized commodities that “aborts and silences criticism.” Manufactured movie and television stars act as its leading spokespersons, promoting its superficial, conformist vision of the happy life both in their performances and in their revolving appearances on the cycles of vacuous, ever-the-same talk shows.”
First, discuss the concept of technological (or instrumental) rationality and how it has come to form the basis of the dominant ideology in our society.
Next, choose a recent news article and describe how it either supports or refutes the notion that the culture industry administers mass deception.
Technological Rationality
Technological rationality is a way of thinking practically that enables a person to choose on how to get things done or rather to perform some specialized assignments in a productive way, and resolve issues. This can be done by considering the various factors involved with a situation as factors to be controlled. Expansion in the scientific and also technological rationality has been used to allow the number of people which is ever increasing to overcome the concept of material scarcity. This has led or, at minimum, contributed to it becoming or forming a basis as a dominant ideology in the society as many people have adopted it in their day to day living.
The development of current free attempt refashioned monetary and social relations and passed on with it the affirmation that science and progression would produce a dominating life. The adjust of various accommodating, plant, correspondence, and transportation issues, regardless of different things, would change society and decline persevering.
In any case, with progress comes related issues. Such a change was achieved through the distance of work and the ascent of production line framework. In the emphasis of proficiency, ware creation, disentanglement, work synchronization and association as well clears the changes objectivity and anything individual mechanical levelheadedness. According to Appelrouth (2012), the technological rationality theory of action incorporates scrutinizing the behavior of living organization by conceiving it as oriented to end situation attainment.
As per this domain of mechanical reasonability, the rationale behind the loss of force of the reason starts in roots conveying sane stagnated society. (first name??) Fuchs?? characterizes an individual as the main reason as to why there are various crucial gauges and says that no power from outside should interfere with it. Moreover, the judiciousness of the aforementioned incorporates both remo ...
Social marketing is the use of commercial marketing principles and techniques to improve the welfare of people and the physical, social and economic environment in which they live.
WECREATE Innovation presents a thought piece on 'next practice' on how to co-create breakthrough purpose-driven innovations. It contains tools, approaches, processes, mindsets and cultures, killers of innovation and drivers of innovation and more. A thorough synthesis of available thinking and cutting-edge tools from the WECREATE experience of doing disruptive innovation with leading NGOs, national and local government and Fortune 500 companies. With the intention of helping all innovators generate and implement breakthroughs - particularly those working in the complex social and impact economies.
Conferencia en el marco de los Seminarios Internacionales del Master en Estrategias y Tecnologías para el Desarrollo, impartida por Gorka Espiau el 14 de diciembre de 2017.
Social entrepreneur innovation to empower people | moladi | plastic formwork | Hennie Botes | Social entrepreneur | innovation | Appropriate technology | Small is Beautiful | Maslow |
Social entrepreneurs and social developmentTapasya123
This area demonstrates the entrepreneurial efforts undertaken to change the underprivileged
society of the world which is popularly understood by Parhalad’s Bottom of the Pyramid.
Social enterprises are innovation since some years and these are capable to work with big
issues as satisfaction of business man or organizations. Innovation is actually a high-priced
division of an organization. Innovation is not just breakthrough in space science, satellite
communication, etc. but presenting a value proposition than past; when comes the idea of
society it provides the sustainability to innovation in the future instead of striving to be right
at high cost, it will be suitable to be flexible and plural at a lower cost. Social entrepreneurs
stand at the nexus between development, business and government. They open another
markets for the bottom-of-the-pyramid, innovate programs, empower the people they serve,
multiply resources and demonstrate their tangible effects for government and other bodies to
replicate which reveal how innovation and entrepreneurship at the very heart of
economically sustainable solutions. And, is a best solution for sustainable social development.
The common future can only be achieved with a better understanding of common concerns
and shared responsibilities.
A review of the growth of the Israel Genealogy Research Association Database Collection for the last 12 months. Our collection is now passed the 3 million mark and still growing. See which archives have contributed the most. See the different types of records we have, and which years have had records added. You can also see what we have for the future.
Introduction to AI for Nonprofits with Tapp NetworkTechSoup
Dive into the world of AI! Experts Jon Hill and Tareq Monaur will guide you through AI's role in enhancing nonprofit websites and basic marketing strategies, making it easy to understand and apply.
Read| The latest issue of The Challenger is here! We are thrilled to announce that our school paper has qualified for the NATIONAL SCHOOLS PRESS CONFERENCE (NSPC) 2024. Thank you for your unwavering support and trust. Dive into the stories that made us stand out!
How to Add Chatter in the odoo 17 ERP ModuleCeline George
In Odoo, the chatter is like a chat tool that helps you work together on records. You can leave notes and track things, making it easier to talk with your team and partners. Inside chatter, all communication history, activity, and changes will be displayed.
The simplified electron and muon model, Oscillating Spacetime: The Foundation...RitikBhardwaj56
Discover the Simplified Electron and Muon Model: A New Wave-Based Approach to Understanding Particles delves into a groundbreaking theory that presents electrons and muons as rotating soliton waves within oscillating spacetime. Geared towards students, researchers, and science buffs, this book breaks down complex ideas into simple explanations. It covers topics such as electron waves, temporal dynamics, and the implications of this model on particle physics. With clear illustrations and easy-to-follow explanations, readers will gain a new outlook on the universe's fundamental nature.
Safalta Digital marketing institute in Noida, provide complete applications that encompass a huge range of virtual advertising and marketing additives, which includes search engine optimization, virtual communication advertising, pay-per-click on marketing, content material advertising, internet analytics, and greater. These university courses are designed for students who possess a comprehensive understanding of virtual marketing strategies and attributes.Safalta Digital Marketing Institute in Noida is a first choice for young individuals or students who are looking to start their careers in the field of digital advertising. The institute gives specialized courses designed and certification.
for beginners, providing thorough training in areas such as SEO, digital communication marketing, and PPC training in Noida. After finishing the program, students receive the certifications recognised by top different universitie, setting a strong foundation for a successful career in digital marketing.
Executive Directors Chat Leveraging AI for Diversity, Equity, and InclusionTechSoup
Let’s explore the intersection of technology and equity in the final session of our DEI series. Discover how AI tools, like ChatGPT, can be used to support and enhance your nonprofit's DEI initiatives. Participants will gain insights into practical AI applications and get tips for leveraging technology to advance their DEI goals.
Unit 8 - Information and Communication Technology (Paper I).pdfThiyagu K
This slides describes the basic concepts of ICT, basics of Email, Emerging Technology and Digital Initiatives in Education. This presentations aligns with the UGC Paper I syllabus.
A Strategic Approach: GenAI in EducationPeter Windle
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies such as Generative AI, Image Generators and Large Language Models have had a dramatic impact on teaching, learning and assessment over the past 18 months. The most immediate threat AI posed was to Academic Integrity with Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) focusing their efforts on combating the use of GenAI in assessment. Guidelines were developed for staff and students, policies put in place too. Innovative educators have forged paths in the use of Generative AI for teaching, learning and assessments leading to pockets of transformation springing up across HEIs, often with little or no top-down guidance, support or direction.
This Gasta posits a strategic approach to integrating AI into HEIs to prepare staff, students and the curriculum for an evolving world and workplace. We will highlight the advantages of working with these technologies beyond the realm of teaching, learning and assessment by considering prompt engineering skills, industry impact, curriculum changes, and the need for staff upskilling. In contrast, not engaging strategically with Generative AI poses risks, including falling behind peers, missed opportunities and failing to ensure our graduates remain employable. The rapid evolution of AI technologies necessitates a proactive and strategic approach if we are to remain relevant.
Normal Labour/ Stages of Labour/ Mechanism of LabourWasim Ak
Normal labor is also termed spontaneous labor, defined as the natural physiological process through which the fetus, placenta, and membranes are expelled from the uterus through the birth canal at term (37 to 42 weeks
Landownership in the Philippines under the Americans-2-pptx.pptx
The Social Innovation Dynamic
1. The Social Innovation Dynamic
Frances Westley
SiG@Waterloo
October, 2008
Social innovation is an initiative, product or process or program that profoundly changes
the basic routines, resource and authority flows or beliefs of any social system.
Successful social innovations have durability and broad impact. While social innovation
has recognizable stages and phases, achieving durability and scale is a dynamic process
that requires both emergence of opportunity and deliberate agency, and a connection
between the two. The capacity of any society to create a steady flow of social innovations,
particularly those which re-engage vulnerable populations, is an important contributor
to the overall social and ecological resilience.
1. Social innovation is an initiative, product or process or program that
profoundly changes the basic routines, resource and authority flows or beliefs
of any social system
Social systems are defined as any organized assembly of resources beliefs and procedures
united and regulated by interaction or interdependence to accomplish a set of specific
functions. Social systems are complex, having multiple interacting elements, and to
survive they must be adaptive, ever evolving to adjust to emerging needs of the sub-
systems (organizations or individuals). Each social system is defined by its
boundary…we can “zoom in “ to look at systems as small as a family, or zoom out to
look at systems as broad as the globe. Each social system has its own character or identity
that can be analyzed in terms of its culture (the beliefs, values, artifacts and symbols) its
political and economic structure (the pattern by which power and resources are
distributed) and its social interactions (the laws, procedures, routines and habits that
govern social interaction and make it predictable). These three aspects of social system,
in their most established and taken for granted forms (e.g. our democratic political
structure, Judeo-Christian value heritage, our economic markets, our laws of public
conduct) are often referred to as institutions.
Human beings are inventive. The capacity to explore new possibilities to create and to
change is part of what defines our species. We are also a social species, highly dependent
on each other for the creation and maintenance of the world in which we live. The rules
and beliefs which make up the cultures in which we live both defines and limits us and
gives us the material we need to create novelty. This has been defined as the paradox of
agency, that as individuals, as social beings, we are both deeply conditioned by and
dependent on the continuity and stability of the social systems we have invented and
capable of altering these through both conscious and unconscious effort. When we cease
to change we die; when our social systems cease to change they become brittle and
2. vulnerable to external shocks. However, too much change, or too rapid change is also
precarious, challenging the social, political and economic stability upon which our day-
to-day life depends. The challenge is to balance continuity that gives us our identity and
change which is key in allowing us to adapt to broader changing circumstances.
2. Successful social innovations have durability and broad impact.
We are interested in those social innovations that address seemingly intractable social
problems – homelessness, poverty, and mental health. In these domains, the social sector
struggles often with “band aid” solutions, those that address the immediate symptoms but
not the underlying causes. So, for example, social service organizations struggle to find
financial support for those suffering from mental illness without addressing the economic
system that excludes them from the mainstream economy. It can be argued that indeed,
the taken for granted institutions are often the source of such intractable problems. Real
innovation without change in these institutions is therefore unlikely.
When a social innovation has a broad or durable impact, it will be disruptive, i.e. it will
challenge the social system and social institutions which govern our conduct, by affecting
the fundamental distribution of power and resources, the basic beliefs that define the
system or the laws and routines which govern it. While there are many smaller
innovations continually introduced at all scales, our focus is on those with the potential to
disrupt, and change the broader system. To do so, a social innovation must cross multiple
social boundaries to reach more people and different people, more organizations and
different organizations, organizations nested across scales (from local to regional to
national to global) and linked in social networks.
3. While social innovation has recognizable stages and phases, achieving
durability and scale is a dynamic process that requires both emergence of
opportunity and deliberate agency, and a connection between the two
Innovation has been widely studied and appears to have a variety of phases and stages.
This has perhaps been best described in the literature on continuously innovating firms.
Innovation can be encouraged by a design that fosters competition between multiple
teams all attempting to develop the best idea or model. This phase or stage has often been
called the exploration phase and is characterized by numerous experiments, some
successful, some not, as an individual or team attempts to move from idea to a prototype
which could be tested in production. Not all such experiments are “successful” however.
At some point choice favours one or several of these experiments and diverts all
resources towards exploiting the possibility of these ideas in the form of new products or
processes. As the product or process moves into the production or exploitation phase, the
prototype is further modified and the organization gains experience at production,
becoming more efficient until the product or process can be replicated with maximum
efficiency and hence profitability. Its fate then rests with the market. If demand increases
then more of the product is produced. Eventually, however, demand will decrease due to
dynamics of the larger market, the competitive context, or changing social and economic
3. conditions. The firm with only one product will therefore go out of business. To be
resilient over long periods of time, the firm must be able to generate new products or
variations of old products in response to this shifting demand context.
This model of innovation can be represented in the four- box cycle below. Known as the
“adaptive cycle” it provides a heuristic for understanding the dynamics that drive both
continuity and change. It is best understood as a diagram that charts this dynamic at a
single scale or in a single system. It could represent the evolution of a single innovation
from idea to maturity, or the organization that designs and delivers that innovation. It is
important to the idea of resilience, or that capacity to adapt to shocks and changes while
maintaining sufficient coherence for identity, that the phases are not represented as linear,
but as an infinity loop. Once an idea or organization reaches the maturity (conservation)
stage it needs to release resources for novelty or change and reengage in exploration in
order to retain its resilience. The release and reorganization phase is often termed the
“back loop” where non-routine change is introduced. The exploitation and conservation
phases are often termed the “front loop” where change is slow, incremental and more
deliberate.
Figure 1
4. Social innovation can be illuminated in part by this diagram, in those new ideas for social
programs, processes, products or initiatives also require development from idea to mature
product and also require organizations to deliver them. However, those social innovations
that have broad impact and durability demand that we also consider cross scale (Figure
2) or cross system (Figure 3) dynamics. These dynamics have been described as
panarchical by resilience theorists, and have not been as well described in the private
sector literature. How do they happen?
Figure 2
Figure 3
5. Agency clearly plays a role. Social innovation requires a variety of actors, working in
concert or separately, if it is to have the kind of impact suggested above. Among these are
the inventors, sometimes called social entrepreneurs, individuals who initiate or create
innovative programs, products or processes and seek to build an initial organization that
can bring that innovation to market. However equally key to social innovations that have
the broad impact we describe above are the institutional entrepreneurs, those individuals
or network of individuals who actively seek to change the broader social system through
changing the political, economic, legal or cultural institutions, in order that the social
innovation can flourish. Occasionally individuals have skills of both the social and
institutional entrepreneurs, but generally it is wiser to think of actor nets, or groups
behind successful social innovation.
But in complex systems, no change can be accounted for by agency alone. Agency must
coincide with opportunity that is a feature of the broader social and institutional context.
Social innovation can be aided by market demand, which is one form of such
opportunity. It can equally be aided by political demand, another form of opportunity, by
cultural demand in the form of a breakdown in sense making or meaning. These
dynamics are complex and difficult if not impossible to manipulate directly. Some of
what has been written about social innovation suggests a one to many model of
innovation growth which depends on stimulating market demand (Young Foundation) or
at least on utilizing market mechanisms, as in social enterprise, with the notion that if
many adopt the social innovation the impact will be larger. However, if the focus is on
disrupting the larger institutional context, it appears that this can occur connecting the
innovation to political, cultural or economic opportunities that exist irrespective of the
volume of adoption. Sudden tipping points or cascades of change that are discontinuous,
i.e. not the result of an incremental model of adoption or diffusion of innovation can then
occur.
Strategies for connecting innovation to these other opportunity contexts is best
understood for looking more closely at agency, particularly institutional entrepreneurship.
This involves a set of skills of pattern recognition, resource mobilization, sense making,
and connecting. It involves a deliberate focus on “up-down” strategies of reflecting on
and connecting to decision makers and opinion leaders in policy, economic and cultural
arenas, engaging and questioning the strategic context of their decisions. It also involves
recognizing local and “front line” innovations that promise institutional disruption and
selling these to the decision makers/opinion leaders when windows of opportunity open.
Institutional entrepreneurs therefore need to master a complex set of cultural/social skills
(cognitive, knowledge management, sense making, convening), political skills (coalition
formation, networking, advocacy, lobbying) and resource mobilization skills (financial,
social, intellectual, cultural and political capital). Building capacity for social innovation
in part involves increasing the representation of these skills among those interested in
fostering broad based change.
6. 4. The capacity of any society to create a steady flow of social innovations,
particularly those which re-engage vulnerable populations, is an important
contributor to the overall social and ecological resilience.
In the broadest sense, social innovation is urgently needed to solve the complex social-
ecological problems facing Canada and the world. In recent weeks, with the world
financial markets in crisis, commentators have spoken of the “perfect storm”, the
intersection of rapid climate change, fossil fuel supplies, food shortages and economic
collapse. All commentators mention the difficulty of really understanding the dynamics
of these problems, due to their complexity. Disciplinary science has only partial answers,
as do politicians and analysts. Only a few commentators have in fact connected these
“disparate” trajectories, suggesting they are connected in their origin as well as their
current interactions. Resilience and complex system thinkers have for several decades
however, been describing just such interconnecting systems and just such possibilities.
Two decades ago, the Brundtland Commission suggested that the real ecological crisis
was not only the pollution of the industrial countries but the over-utilization in and export
of ecological resources in the developing world. Both were connected to an economic
system in the western industrialized nations that demanded high “profitability” and huge
resources to keep afloat. Subsequent profits became loans to the developing world, which
intensified the poverty of the dispossessed resulting in the failure of growth in the
infrastructures of health, education and social benefits. Structural adjustments in order to
service loans (and qualify for more) undermined local resilience in the form of cultural
and social practices. Nonetheless, defaulting on government loans represented a real
threat to the northern economies, as did the environmental violence that was the result of
the diminished ecological services available to people in the developing nations. Social
injustice and equity were shown in this model not only to be moral issues, but also to be
deeply implicated in the erosion of both environmental resources and economic markets.
(Figure 4).
7. Figure 4
Since 1989 when the Brundtland commission was published our understanding of these
connections and the vicious cycle they engendered, has been deepened, but not
fundamentally changed. The exclusion of large parts of the world’s population from basic
economic and ecological services increases the vulnerability of the whole to “perfect
storms” and hard losses of resilience.
Re-engaging vulnerable populations in our mainstream economic, social and cultural
institutions, not just as recipients of services or “transfer entitlements” but as active
participants and contributors is therefore intimately tied to socio-ecological resilience. It
is not accidental that most social innovation is addressed at this kind of re-engagement:
re-integrating the poor, the homeless, the mentally ill, and the lonely into community. But
from another point of view we can see that if the generation of novelty is largely
dependent on the recombination of elements (bricolage), than as we exclude these groups
from contribution we also lose their viewpoints, their diversity, and the particular
elements they have to offer the whole. So social innovation not only serves vulnerable
populations, it is served by it. And, since resilience of linked social-ecological systems is
depended on the introduction of novelty in the back loop, resilience is also increased by
that re-engagement. (See Figure 5)
8. Figure 5
Conclusions
Social innovation is needed to build social and ecological resilience in the face of
mounting complex challenges to our economic, social, political and cultural institutions.
Intractable problems are not new, but their interconnection in the context of global
systems is presenting a new level of urgency and uncertainty. Building capacity at local,
regional, national and international levels for not only new inventions and creativity in
the social arena but also for system transformation can build resilience in the face of this
uncertainty. In particular, the re-engagement of vulnerable populations can have a
positive impact on our capacity for innovation and can add to the resilience of the whole.