Social innovation
Encyclopedia
Social innovation refers to new strategies, concepts, ideas
and organizations that meet social
needs of all kinds - from working conditions and education
to community development
and health
- and that extend and strengthen civil society
.
The term has overlapping meanings. It can be used to refer to social processes of innovation, such as open source methods and techniques. Alternatively it refers to innovations which have a social purpose
- like microcredit
or distance learning
. The concept can also be related to social entrepreneurship
(entrepreneurship is not necessarily innovative, but it can be a means of innovation
) and it also overlaps with innovation in public policy
and governance
. Social innovation can take place within government
, within the for-profit sector, or within the nonprofit sector (also known as the third sector), or in the space between them. Research has focused on the types of platforms needed to facilitate such cross-sector collaborative social innovation. Social innovation is gaining visibility within academia.
Prominent innovators associated with the term include Bangladeshi Mohammed Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank
which pioneered the concept of microcredit
for supporting innovators in multiple developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America and Stephen Goldsmith
, former Indianapolis
mayor who engaged the private sector in providing many city services.
and Michael Young (founder of the Open University
and dozens of other organizations) in the 1960s. It also appeared in the work of French writers in the 1970s, such as Pierre Rosanvallon
, Jacques Fournier, and Jacques Attali
. However, the themes and also concepts in social innovation existed long before. Benjamin Franklin
, for example, talked about small modifications within the social organisation of communities that could help to solve everyday problems. Many radical 19th century reform
ers like Robert Owen
, founder of the cooperative movement, promoted innovation in the social field and all of the great sociologists including Karl Marx
, Max Weber
and Émile Durkheim
focused attention on broader processes of social change
. More detailed theories of social innovation became prominent in the 20th century. Joseph Schumpeter
, for example, addressed the process of innovation
directly with his theory of creative destruction
and his definition of entrepreneurs as people who combined existing elements in new ways to create a new product or service. Beinning in the 1980s, writers on technological change increasingly addressed how social factors affect technology diffusion.
development covers innovation in the social economy
, i.e. strategies for satisfaction of human needs; and innovation in the sense of transforming and/or sustaining social relations, especially governance
relations at the regional and local level. Beginning in the late 1980s, Jean-Louis Laville and Frank Moulaert
researched social innovation. In Canada
CRISES initiated this type of research. Another, larger project was SINGOCOM a European Commission
Framework 5 project, which pioneered so-called "Alternative Models for Local Innovation" (ALMOLIN). These models were further elaborated through community actions covered by KATARSIS and SOCIAL POLIS. More recent works focus on the societal role of the economic life in terms of innovations in social practices and social relations at the local and regional levels. Social Innovation, therefore, is increasingly seen as a process and a strategy to foster human development through solidarity, cooperation, and cultural diversity.
Idea
In the most narrow sense, an idea is just whatever is before the mind when one thinks. Very often, ideas are construed as representational images; i.e. images of some object. In other contexts, ideas are taken to be concepts, although abstract concepts do not necessarily appear as images...
and organizations that meet social
Social
The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...
needs of all kinds - from working conditions and education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
to community development
Community development
Community development is a broad term applied to the practices and academic disciplines of civic leaders, activists, involved citizens and professionals to improve various aspects of local communities....
and health
Health
Health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person's mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain...
- and that extend and strengthen civil society
Civil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...
.
The term has overlapping meanings. It can be used to refer to social processes of innovation, such as open source methods and techniques. Alternatively it refers to innovations which have a social purpose
Social purpose
Within the context of law, social purpose is a scheme of statutory construction declaring that a statute should not be construed in a way that would violate normal societal values or good. Example of cases in which this rule of construction was used include Riggs v. Palmer and Holy Trinity Church...
- like microcredit
Microcredit
Microcredit is the extension of very small loans to those in poverty designed to spur entrepreneurship. These individuals lack collateral, steady employment and a verifiable credit history and therefore cannot meet even the most minimal qualifications to gain access to traditional credit...
or distance learning
Distance education
Distance education or distance learning is a field of education that focuses on teaching methods and technology with the aim of delivering teaching, often on an individual basis, to students who are not physically present in a traditional educational setting such as a classroom...
. The concept can also be related to social entrepreneurship
Social entrepreneurship
Social entrepreneurship is the work of social entrepreneurs. A social entrepreneur recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create and manage a venture to achieve social change . While a business entrepreneur typically measures performance in profit and return, a...
(entrepreneurship is not necessarily innovative, but it can be a means of innovation
Innovation
Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society...
) and it also overlaps with innovation in public policy
Public policy
Public policy as government action is generally the principled guide to action taken by the administrative or executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs. In general, the foundation is the pertinent national and...
and governance
Governance
Governance is the act of governing. It relates to decisions that define expectations, grant power, or verify performance. It consists of either a separate process or part of management or leadership processes...
. Social innovation can take place within government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
, within the for-profit sector, or within the nonprofit sector (also known as the third sector), or in the space between them. Research has focused on the types of platforms needed to facilitate such cross-sector collaborative social innovation. Social innovation is gaining visibility within academia.
Prominent innovators associated with the term include Bangladeshi Mohammed Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank
Grameen Bank
The Grameen Bank is a microfinance organization and community development bank started in Bangladesh that makes small loans to the impoverished without requiring collateral...
which pioneered the concept of microcredit
Microcredit
Microcredit is the extension of very small loans to those in poverty designed to spur entrepreneurship. These individuals lack collateral, steady employment and a verifiable credit history and therefore cannot meet even the most minimal qualifications to gain access to traditional credit...
for supporting innovators in multiple developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America and Stephen Goldsmith
Stephen Goldsmith
Stephen "Steve" Goldsmith is the former mayor of Indianapolis and most recently served as the Deputy Mayor of New York City for Operations, stepping down effective August 4, 2011 after a domestic violence arrest. He is also the Daniel Paul Professor of Government at the John F...
, former Indianapolis
Indianapolis
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
mayor who engaged the private sector in providing many city services.
History
Social innovation was discussed in the writings of figures such as Peter DruckerPeter Drucker
Peter Ferdinand Drucker was an influential writer, management consultant, and self-described “social ecologist.”-Introduction:...
and Michael Young (founder of the Open University
Open University
The Open University is a distance learning and research university founded by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom...
and dozens of other organizations) in the 1960s. It also appeared in the work of French writers in the 1970s, such as Pierre Rosanvallon
Pierre Rosanvallon
Pierre Rosanvallon is a French intellectual and historian, named professor at the Collège de France in 2001. He holds there the chair in the modern and contemporary history of the political. His works are dedicated to the history of democracy, French political history, the role of the state and...
, Jacques Fournier, and Jacques Attali
Jacques Attali
Jacques Attali is a French economist, writer and senior civil servant.Former adviser to President François Mitterrand and first president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, he founded the non-profit organization PlaNet Finance and was nominated President of the Commission for...
. However, the themes and also concepts in social innovation existed long before. Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
, for example, talked about small modifications within the social organisation of communities that could help to solve everyday problems. Many radical 19th century reform
Reform
Reform means to put or change into an improved form or condition; to amend or improve by change of color or removal of faults or abuses, beneficial change, more specifically, reversion to a pure original state, to repair, restore or to correct....
ers like Robert Owen
Robert Owen
Robert Owen was a Welsh social reformer and one of the founders of utopian socialism and the cooperative movement.Owen's philosophy was based on three intellectual pillars:...
, founder of the cooperative movement, promoted innovation in the social field and all of the great sociologists including Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
, Max Weber
Max Weber
Karl Emil Maximilian "Max" Weber was a German sociologist and political economist who profoundly influenced social theory, social research, and the discipline of sociology itself...
and Émile Durkheim
Émile Durkheim
David Émile Durkheim was a French sociologist. He formally established the academic discipline and, with Karl Marx and Max Weber, is commonly cited as the principal architect of modern social science and father of sociology.Much of Durkheim's work was concerned with how societies could maintain...
focused attention on broader processes of social change
Social change
Social change refers to an alteration in the social order of a society. It may refer to the notion of social progress or sociocultural evolution, the philosophical idea that society moves forward by dialectical or evolutionary means. It may refer to a paradigmatic change in the socio-economic...
. More detailed theories of social innovation became prominent in the 20th century. Joseph Schumpeter
Joseph Schumpeter
Joseph Alois Schumpeter was an Austrian-Hungarian-American economist and political scientist. He popularized the term "creative destruction" in economics.-Life:...
, for example, addressed the process of innovation
Innovation
Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society...
directly with his theory of creative destruction
Creative destruction
Creative destruction is a term originally derived from Marxist economic theory which refers to the linked processes of the accumulation and annihilation of wealth under capitalism. These processes were first described in The Communist Manifesto and were expanded in Marx's Grundrisse and "Volume...
and his definition of entrepreneurs as people who combined existing elements in new ways to create a new product or service. Beinning in the 1980s, writers on technological change increasingly addressed how social factors affect technology diffusion.
Developments since 2000
Academic research, blogs and websites feature social innovation, along with organizations working on the boundaries of research and practical action. Topics include:- Innovation in public services was pioneered particularly in some ScandinaviaScandinaviaScandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
n and Asian countries. Governments are increasingly recognizing that innovation requires healthcare, schooling and democracyDemocracyDemocracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
. - Social entrepreneurshipSocial entrepreneurshipSocial entrepreneurship is the work of social entrepreneurs. A social entrepreneur recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create and manage a venture to achieve social change . While a business entrepreneur typically measures performance in profit and return, a...
, which is the practice of creating new organizations focusing on non- market activities. - Business, particularly in services.
- Open source innovation, in which the intellectual property involved in a produce or service is made freely available.
- Complex adaptive systems, which have built-in mechanisms to help them adapt to changing circumstances.
- Collaborative approaches which involve stakeholders who are not directly responsible for some activity, such as stockholders and unions collaborating on business issue and business collaborating with government on regulatory issues.
- Innovation diffusion
- Localized influences that make some localities particularly innovative.
- 8 Recent Examples of Social Innovation referenced in part from Jason Saul's 2010 Book, Social Innovation, Inc.
Institutional support
The US created an Office for Social Innovation in the White House, which is funding projects that combine public and private resources. Foundations support social innovation. The European Union’s innovation strategy was the first well-funded research and development strategy to emphasise social innovation. Public policy makers support social innovation in these different sectors, notably in the UK, Australia, China and Denmark. In 2010, the US government listed 11 investments made by its 'Social Innovation Fund', with public funding more than matched by philanthropic organizations. The fund focuses on partnerships with charities, social enterprises, and business.Local and Regional development
Literature on social innovation in relation to territorial/regionalRegional development
Regional development is the provision of aid and other assistance to regions which are less economically developed. Regional development may be domestic or international in nature...
development covers innovation in the social economy
Social economy
Social economy refers to a third sector in economies between the private sector and business or, the public sector and government. It includes organisations such as cooperatives, non-governmental organisations and charities....
, i.e. strategies for satisfaction of human needs; and innovation in the sense of transforming and/or sustaining social relations, especially governance
Governance
Governance is the act of governing. It relates to decisions that define expectations, grant power, or verify performance. It consists of either a separate process or part of management or leadership processes...
relations at the regional and local level. Beginning in the late 1980s, Jean-Louis Laville and Frank Moulaert
Frank Moulaert
Frank Moulaert is Professor of Spatial Planning at the Department of Architecture, Urban Design and Regional Planning at Catholic University of Leuven. He is Director of the Urban and Regional Planning Research Group and chairs the Leuven Space and Society Research Centre at the University...
researched social innovation. In Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
CRISES initiated this type of research. Another, larger project was SINGOCOM a European Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
Framework 5 project, which pioneered so-called "Alternative Models for Local Innovation" (ALMOLIN). These models were further elaborated through community actions covered by KATARSIS and SOCIAL POLIS. More recent works focus on the societal role of the economic life in terms of innovations in social practices and social relations at the local and regional levels. Social Innovation, therefore, is increasingly seen as a process and a strategy to foster human development through solidarity, cooperation, and cultural diversity.
Some noted scholars
- Akhtar Hameed KhanAkhtar Hameed KhanAkhtar Hameed Khan was a Pakistani development activist and social scientist credited for pioneering microcredit and microfinance initiatives, farmers' cooperatives, and rural training programmes in the developing world. He promoted participatory rural development in Pakistan and other developing...
- Jürgen Howaldt & Michael Schwarz
- Jean-Louis Laville
- Frank MoulaertFrank MoulaertFrank Moulaert is Professor of Spatial Planning at the Department of Architecture, Urban Design and Regional Planning at Catholic University of Leuven. He is Director of the Urban and Regional Planning Research Group and chairs the Leuven Space and Society Research Centre at the University...
- Geoff MulganGeoff MulganGeoff Mulgan is Chief Executive of the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts and Visiting Professor at University College, London, the London School of Economics and the University of Melbourne...
- Michael D. Mumford
See also
- Social Innovation CampSocial Innovation CampSocial Innovation Camp is a competition and event for software developers, designers and social innovators to create new businesses and projects that use the web to achieve a social goal...
- civil societyCivil societyCivil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...
- post fordism
- social entrepreneurshipSocial entrepreneurshipSocial entrepreneurship is the work of social entrepreneurs. A social entrepreneur recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create and manage a venture to achieve social change . While a business entrepreneur typically measures performance in profit and return, a...
- SpecialisterneSpecialisterneSpecialisterne is a Danish social innovator company using the characteristics of people with Autism Spectrum Disorder as competitive advantages in the business market....
- sustainopreneurshipSustainopreneurshipSustainopreneurship is a concept that has emerged from earlier conceptual development social entrepreneurship and ecopreneurship, via sustainability entrepreneurship...
- Tides CenterTides CenterTides Center is a non-profit organization in the United States which provides fiscal sponsorship for progressive groups. Tides Center is classified a 501 tax-exempt organization by the IRS...
- Young FoundationYoung FoundationThe Young Foundation was launched in the spring of 2006 following the merger of the Institute of Community Studies and the Mutual Aid Centre. It is named after Michael Young, the British sociologist and social activist who created over 60 organisations including the Open University, Which? and...
- Social Innovations Presentation