Articles

The project SI-DRIVE “Social Innovation: Driving Force of Social Change” mapped 1.005 social innovation initiatives belonging to seven policy fields on all five continents of the world. The results of the comparative analysis give insights into the highly diverse world of social innovation, the variety of actors and their interaction, and the systemic character of the concept.

The development of a theoretically sound concept is an important challenge to unfold the potential of social innovation. Defining social innovation as a new combination or figuration of social practices allows integrating the many different (and sometimes conflicting) meanings of social innovation and offers a new perspective on the multiplicity of the concept of social innovation. This also offers the opportunity for a better understanding of the relationship of social and technological innovation and lays the foundation for further scientific research.

Social innovation is the third leg in a stool of resilient societies. Building resilience requires reducing vulnerability of excluded and endangered populations. Social innovation draws on the diversity and richness of these, sometimes marginalized, populations to find novel solutions to intractable problems.

The article stages spaces and places as habitats of hope and change, resistance and social innovation, with high potential of socio-political transformation. It summarizes two long-term action research trajectories, one in Europe and one in Québec, showing the importance of socially innovative initiatives, governance and institutionalization processes.

Have you ever wondered how the world will be able to tackle the ‘wicked’ problems that beset us all such as climate change, mass migration, global poverty or the current grotesque levels of inequality? This article will explore one set of ‘clumsy’ solutions to these problems – social entrepreneurship.

Social innovation will realise its potential contribution to inclusive growth only to the extent it can unfold its social and economic impact for beneficiaries as well as society at large. For social innovation to flourish an inspiring environment that provides support and enables mutual learning is essential.

The capability approach, an influential development in ethics, provides a way for the consideration of justice and democracy at the core of social innovation. It creates space for a critical reflection on and promotion of social innovation that is social both in its ends and in its means.

Although global sustainable development initiatives have been deploying social innovation principles and practices for many years, it is only recently that they have started started to use this term and engage with SI networks and concepts. The two have much in common, and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030 are bringing them together for mutual benefit.

Social innovation is a broad concept that has been deliberated from the perspective of diverse academic disciplines for quite a long time. Yet, its interplay with sustainability is a topic that has not been widely discussed but still deserves attention.

Transformative social innovation is a multi-actor phenomenon where we can see the emergence of a hybrid sector that blurs and challenges the boundaries between the traditional sector logics, including new elements, roles and challenges from all of them.

Why Higher Education Institutions are important for social innovation and how they can promote social innovation initiatives and projects.

The project SI-DRIVE “Social Innovation: Driving Force of Social Change” includes a specific practice field within the policy domain of Employment, namely Workplace Innovation. Workplace Innovation can be positioned at the level of organisations and companies, where it has a significant effect on the participation of employees, the quality of their jobs, and the sustainable employability of the labour force.

An analysis of approaches to diversity across in-depth case studies of social innovation. Diversity and inclusion are critical to achieving many of the UN millenium goals – including poverty alleviation, education and employment – and so it is not surprising that they appear as cross cutting themes in SI-DRIVE social innovation cases. Our analysis suggests, however, that they seldom address the systemic roots of exclusion, and are thus unlikely to result in systemic change.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are permeating any single aspect of human life. Employing these technologies is vital for the modernisation of social services in terms of service design and delivery in areas such as childcare, education and training, employment services or social care. This "social investment perspective" shows that social policy is not just a cost, but rather an investment for the future.

Social innovation has many challenges in practice due to the complexity of stakeholders and ecological systems involved in the framework of value co-creation. Service design is emerging as a more effective approach in order to enhance SI co-design and long-term stakeholder involvement for achieving the purpose of adoption and diffusion.

Social innovation tackles social needs as they arise; should it also aim to change the system?

Human and financial resources as well as organisational capabilities are needed to overcome the manifold constraints social innovators are facing. To unlock the potential of social innovation for the whole society new (social) innovation friendly environments and new governance structures (ecosystems) have to be set-up to foster social innovations in their different stages of development.

The article explores different actor types and roles in social innovation processes. It discovers which actors take over the role of developers, promoters, supporters and knowledge providers. A second focus is on users and the question how they are involved in the development of social innovations.

This chapter argues that the process dynamic of social innovation depends on the societal domain where the social innovation is anchored and on the mode and intensity of interaction. Nine types of social innovation, derived from the process dynamics point of view, are presented and discussed.

Up to now, endeavours to distinguish between different types of Social Innovation have remained sporadic efforts by single European initiatives. Building upon the empirical results of the SI-DRIVE project, this article sketches the first characteristics of a typology distinguishing between different types of Social Innovation along their relation to the formal system or the social-cultural environment they are operating in.

To understand the relationship between social innovation and social change is highly important in order to unfold the potential of social innovation. A recourse to social practice theory and the theory of Gabriel Tarde help us to understand the complexity of innovation processes. It opens up a new perspective on the embeddedness of social innovation and the governance of social change processes.

Networks and cooperation are vital for social innovation (SI). Policy which stimulates the development of SI ecosystems is likely to encourage the sustainability of social innovations. This chapter focuses on Western Europe, detailing how networks, individuals and groups are the main drivers in social innovation and providing examples of such networks.

The UK has a well-developed social innovation (SI) eco-system that has helped drive the rapid advancement of SI, particularly through social enterprise. However, whilst the UK continues to lead, there are further opportunities for research and capacity building beyond the field of social enterprise.

From Bismarck’s ‘National Security System’ to today’s energy transition, throughout history innovation made in Germany has been far from being purely technological in nature. Yet, public policy has only recently shown interest in the concept of social innovation culminating in the broadened understanding of innovation laid out in the country’s national ‘High-Tech Strategy’.

The Netherlands is catching up with social innovation. In the former century combating social problems was a task of public organisations and government, largely carried out top down. Today the responsibility to tackle social issues is partly shifting to public-private partnerships, social enterprises and communities.

The Nordic countries exhibit a particular welfare model with a notable presence of social innovation that has evolved over time. This article takes stock of its origins and development, and examines whether Nordic social innovation serves to complement or substitute for sound institutions and the lessons thereof for policy.

The persistence of the economic and social crisis is putting Italy under pressure and eroding its capacity to react. The emergence of bottom up social innovations shows great potential, but a stronger institutional environment and a more systemic approach are needed to mobilise resources and achieve significant social impact.

The Basque country is known by many people, among other features, for its landscape, gastronomy and cultural life. But maybe, the real meaning of being an Autonomous Community and the effects on its regional economy, social organization and the international dimension are not so well known. The Basque Country is also a leading region regarding Social Innovation.

The term social innovation is relatively new in the countries in Eastern Europe. However, there have been many initiatives in the region that could be classified as such and that occur in a variety of fields such as education, energy, environment, transport, etc. Although the innovation policies in the region are not specifically focused on the development of social innovations, there are also drivers and successful practices that demonstrate the potential of this type of innovations to achieve positive impacts.

The public sector plays a critical role for the process of developing an ecosystem for social innovation in Croatia, as the lessons learned from Zagreb reveal.

We provide an overview of the current state of social innovation in Turkey: how socially innovative projects develop solutions to challenging social and environmental issues amid financial and organizational barriers. An outlook for the future of social innovation in Turkey is offered.

Currently, social innovation in Russia is a relatively new phenomenon. Despite a growing demand for innovation in the social sphere on the part of the state and society, innovation is not disseminated on a large-scale basis. So, how is social innovation implemented in Russia?

In Latin America and the Caribbean, a very active civil society has been able to bring about much social innovation at the local level, in order to face challenges related to poverty, inequality and social exclusion. However, challenges remain in scaling up and replicating successful initiatives.

The different research activities about social innovation in Brazil indicate that this country has been, for many reasons, a “cradle” of social innovation.

In a country characterized by high economic growth but huge inequality, a diverse social innovation ecosystem has emerged, with the public sector playing a pioneering role in fostering social innovation.

Colombia has an exciting history of transformation: homicide and poverty rates were reduced dramatically within 15 years. A part of this story is related to urban and social innovations, as well as their official support through policies, government agencies and public projects.

Based on the concept of co-construction of knowledge developed by the Center for Research on Social Innovations (CRISES), this text focuses on the mode of development applied in the Province of Québec (Canada). Part of an epistemological revolution, it asserts that collaborative research is a key for co-constructing social innovation.

Social innovation in Africa is making significant contributions to alleviating poverty and supporting sustainable development, but is doing so in a lopsided manner. Although it is a difficult balancing act, there is generally too little focus on the economy and employment as well as on the need to engage with and influence institutional and political structures that are key to long-term success.

The financial economic crisis in 2008, followed by the Arab Spring in 2011, proved how deeply rooted the challenges in the region are. No rapid solutions but a steady transformation toward Sustainable Development is needed. Achieving this, better understanding and empowerment of social innovations in Arab States are crucial in order to speed up this transition.

“Necessity is the mother of invention, and in Africa it has been the mother of innovation.” With the growth of the sector in South Africa this also holds true for social innovation. As the number of social innovations rise, an ecosystem has grown up around them, placing universities as key role players in their support.

This article examines the role of social innovation in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. Tracking its evolution from the early stages of Bedouin culture and invention by necessity through the issues of a nature-based economy and eroding traditional knowledge, it underlines its key importance in future reforms.

Social innovation has been a popular idea in China since 2000. The exploration of “social management innovation” is a powerful driving force of innovation in the public sector, and in the private sphere, activities relating to social entrepreneurship yet generate many innovative initiatives.

The city of Seoul has made social innovation relevant to citizens’ daily lives and has brought fundamental changes to how we live and are connected to others. Innovations in public service, the sharing city, and the autonomous districts are the main areas showing the three key concepts of social innovation actively pursued in Seoul.

Can social innovation offer a pathway to guide the future of development strategies in the South Asian region? This paper attempts to unpack this question by exploring the emerging realms and types of social innovations and the potential and challenges of the same towards transforming the marginalities of poor and marginalized communities.

Water is a common good, but what about wastewater? Is wastewater something that should just be flushed away or is it a stream of opportunities? How social innovation can drive sustainability in wastewater management: a story line from Bangkok, Thailand.

Cultural values of Māori, New Zealand’s indigenous people, are important catalysts of social innovation in New Zealand. Collective Māori social institutions, interactions and connections form a nested ecosystem, embedded in pan-Māori contexts and a colonial history. They inform Whānau Ora, a public policy social innovation, and can underpin community responses to crises.

Social Innovations within Education and Lifelong Learning are still under value, their potential has to be unlocked!

Social innovations in Employment are scattered. If social innovations want to achieve sustainable, social changes, they require integration to create more coherent ‘social innovation of employment’.

In the future, social innovation in Environment is seen to have an even stronger role in enabling positive changes in behavior and often they have an explicitly local role. However, it is also the ambition of many social innovation initiatives in Environment to bring new solutions to environmental problems in providing a local context to often global environmental problems.

This article is based on research of the work package on social innovation in mobility and transport of the EU-funded SI-DRIVE project and highlights the most important findings. A detailed elaboration of social innovations in mobility and transport are discussed in the final report of the working package.

In the energy domain, social innovation initiatives can help speed up the transition towards a sustainable energy system. However, their impact on this overall goal depends on the format of the social innovations and the amount of initiatives which are in place. This is in turn strongly shaped by factors which vary between countries and which are discussed in this article.

Despite the institutionalised nature of the health and social care sector, which may be a challenge to innovation, social innovation is seen to be growing. This impact can be further increased through relationships and partnerships which challenge the conventional cultures and values of the sector.

Poverty reduction is literally the number one Sustainable Development Goal agreed by virtually all countries and the United Nations to be achieved between 2016 and 2030. Social innovation has a critical role to play because poverty, despite significant reductions between country averages from 2000 to 2015, remains the major constraint to successful sustainable development. Moreover, social innovation’s cross-cutting and collaborative approach is precisely what is needed to tackle the highly complex and interrelated challenges that poverty presents.

Social innovation has become much more visible over the last few years. But how much has really been achieved? And how will it prosper in a potentially more hostile climate dominated by populist politics and social resentments? This chapter takes stock of what has and hasn’t been achieved over the last decade and sets out a roadmap for the one ahead.

Silicon Valley is a hub of technology innovation. But when it comes to social innovation, it is a global phenomenon where solutions emerge from the skills, resources, and perseverance of people across the planet. Three systemic barriers block many social innovations from scale – and finding solutions to these barriers is a call to action.

The Centre for Social Innovation is a nonprofit social enterprise, a global pioneer in coworking, and a community and catalyst for people and organizations that are changing the world. We host over 1,000 organizations that employ 2,500 people and generate over $250 million per year in combined revenue.

Our society is facing many social challenges while everything that we need to solve these challenges has already been invented. What we need are people who want to find new solutions and proactively create change in this world. The non-profit Social Impact supports those who develop new approaches to make the world to a better place by scaling social innovations.

Social innovation ecosystems enable or inhibit the development of social innovations. They consist of actors from different societal sectors and their environments with legal and cultural norms, supportive infrastructures and many other elements.

The world we live in is more connected than ever, and networks are very much in vogue. Networks are no longer just for socialites; they are a powerful tool for creating societal impact. So why has this phenomenon occurred, and what does it mean for organisations of the future?

The European Union (EU) has provided an essential leverage capacity for the emergence of Social Innovation. Drawing from the experience of the last decade on Social Innovation in EU policy making and from the institutional support given to innovative policy issues in other sectors, this article makes the case for the creation of a dedicated European institute for Social Innovation.

While co-creation and empowerment are generic features of social innovation, initiatives are embedded in an environment which can sometimes be supportive or even hostile. Research in SI-DRIVE provides examples for a variety of manifestations, leading to a typology of six models.