The big picture

Transformative Social Innovation Insights from the TRANSIT-project Flor Avelino | [email protected] | @FlorAvelino

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 613169.

ESF Brussel 26 October 2015

www.drift.eur.nl

www.transitiepraktijk.nl

www.transitionsnetwork.org

www.ksinetwork.nl

RESEARCH PRACTICE

CONSULTANCY POLICY ADVICE EDUCATION

WWW.DRIFT.EUR.NL / @DRIFTEUR

www.transitsocialinnovation.nl / @TransitSI

• 2014-2017

• 12 partners, 35 researchers

• EU & Latin-America

• 20 social innovation networks

What is a ‘transition’?

Product/ Service Innovation

Process Innovation

System Innovation

Transition

“Innovation Cascade” (Rotmans 2005)

• socio-technical innovation

• long-term

• complex

• uncertainty

Transitions ≈ • long-term process (1-2 generations, 20-50 years) • radical & structural change in culture, structure, practice • high levels of complexity and uncertainty

Sustainability transition ≈ • “radical transformation towards a sustainable society” • “response to persistent problems in modern societies”

(Grin, Rotmans and Schot 2010)

Definition (sustainability) transitions

Geels & Kemp 2000, Geels 2005, Schot & Geels 2010, De Haan & Rotmans 2011

Landscape (macro-level) Regimes (meso-level) Niches (micro-level)

exogenous macro-developments dominant structures, cultures & practices spaces for innovation

Multi-level perspective

societal systems

Landscape Climate change, economic crisis, resource scarcity, oil prices

Regime Centralised fossil energy regime incl. market, government, consumers

Niches Solar energy, wind energy, community energy, etc.

ENERGY

Example: MLP Energy System

Geels & Kemp 2000, Geels 2005, Schot & Geels 2010

• Strategic niche management: protecting, nurturing and empowering niches

• Questioning & challenging regime elements

• Top-down & bottom-up pressure on regimes

• Playing in to landscape developments

• Up-scaling ≈ beyond replication and growth towards institutional regime change

Multi-level strategy transition management

www.transitsocialinnovation.eu

Social Innovation?

Existing research & literature: • new (combinations of) social practices (Howaldt & Kopp 2012)

• changing social relations (Moulaert et al. 2013)

• societal, systemic change (Westley 2013)

Our working definition of social innovation: • change in social relations, involving • new ways of doing, organizing, knowing and framing • incl. renewal & reinvention

http://www.westmillsolar.coop

http://persoonlijkeruimte.nl/?portfolio=buurtenergie-blijstroom

‘Reinventing’ cooperatives

Local, complementary currencies


High Expectations of Social Innovation

Former EU president José Manuel Barroso: “If encouraged and valued, social innovation can bring immediate solutions to the pressing social issues that citizens are confronted with.” Hubert 2012


High Expectations of Social Innovation

“At a time of major budgetary constraints, social innovation is an effective way of responding to social challenges, by mobilising people’s creativity to develop solutions and make better use of scarce resources”. 2010: p7


Questioning the Assumption

Underlying Assumption: social innovation contributes to wider transformative change and empowers people to deal with societal challenges

Research questions TRANSIT-project: • how, to what extent and under which condition does social

innovation contribute to transformative change? • how are people empowered (or disempowered) to contribute

to transformative social innovation? • how do we conceptualise and study transformative social

innovation?

Transformative social innovation

…challenges …alters

…replaces

- Transition studies - System innovation - Co-evolution - Institutional theory - Relational theory - Discourse analysis - Political theory

Agency in transformative social innovation


…replaces

AGENCY (dis) empowerment

- Transition studies - Social psychology - Entrepreneurship - Social movement

theory

Example


…replaces

Time Banks

actors

TB UK


Empirical Case Studies

• Initiatives that work on social innovation • (aim to) contribute to transformative change • (towards more sustainable, resilient and/or just societies)

• Transnational (cross-continental) networks • Translocal: locally rooted, globally connected

• Europe & Latin-America

Transnational Networks under study in TRANSIT project Local Case 1 Local Case 2

1 Ashoka: Network for supporting social entrepreneurs HU DE

2 Basic Income (BIEN) DE NL

3 Credit Unions: Network of different types of credit cooperatives ES UK

4 DESIS-network: Network for design for social innovation and sustainability ITA BRA

5 International Co-operative Alliance (Housing) ARG DE

6 FABLABS: Digital fabrication workshops open to local communities UK ARG

7 Global Ecovillage Network: network of eco-villages DE POR

8 Hackerspace: User driven digital fabrication workshops UK ARG

9 Int. Observatory for Participatory Democracy (Participatory budgeting) BRA NL 10 Impact Hub: Global network of local hubs for social entrepreneurs NL BRA

11 INFORSE: International network of sustainable energy NGOs DK BE

12 Living Knowledge Network: Network of community-based research entities/ science shops

DK RO

13 Living Labs (EnoLL) labs for co-creative research, development and innovation NL UK

14 RIPESS: Network for the promotion of social solidarity economy BE RO

15 Seed Freedom MovementNetwork bricolage (5 networks) HU UK

16 Shareable Network: Promoting and collecting sharing initiatives mainly in cities ES NL

17 Slow Food: Linking food to a commitment to community and environment ES DE

18 Time Banks: Networks facilitating reciprocal service exchange UK ES

19 Transition Towns: Grassroot communities working on ‘local resilience’ UK HU

20 Via Campesina: Network for family farming to promote social justice and dignity ARG HU

Transnational Networks under study in TRANSIT project Local Case 1 Local Case 2

1 Ashoka: Network for supporting social entrepreneurs HU DE

2 Basic Income (BIEN) DE NL

3 Credit Unions: Network of different types of credit cooperatives ES UK

4 DESIS-network: Network for design for social innovation and sustainability ITA BRA

5 International Co-operative Alliance (Housing) ARG DE

6 FABLABS: Digital fabrication workshops open to local communities UK ARG

7 Global Ecovillage Network: network of eco-villages DE POR

8 Hackerspace: User driven digital fabrication workshops UK ARG

9 Int. Observatory for Participatory Democracy (Participatory budgeting) BRA NL 10 Impact Hub: Global network of local hubs for social entrepreneurs NL BRA

11 INFORSE: International network of sustainable energy NGOs DK BE

12 Living Knowledge Network: Network of community-based research entities/ science shops

DK RO

13 Living Labs (EnoLL) labs for co-creative research, development and innovation NL UK

14 RIPESS: Network for the promotion of social solidarity economy BE RO

15 Seed Freedom MovementNetwork bricolage (5 networks) HU UK

16 Shareable Network: Promoting and collecting sharing initiatives mainly in cities ES NL

17 Slow Food: Linking food to a commitment to community and environment ES DE

18 Time Banks: Networks facilitating reciprocal service exchange UK ES

19 Transition Towns: Grassroot communities working on ‘local resilience’ UK HU

20 Via Campesina: Network for family farming to promote social justice and dignity ARG HU

• Embedded case-studies: • 20 translocal networks • 80-120 local manifestations • Across EU/Latin-America • In-depth case-studies • Cross-comparative meta-analysis

http://gen.ecovillage.org/en

Diversity across cases

Phase 1: 12 case-study reports and summaries + synthesis report


Mid-term insights

1. Narratives of change & game-changers 2. Renewing social relations 3. Challenging institutions

(Dis)empowerment challenges for transformative social innovation > preliminary ‘policy insights’


Narratives & Game-changers

Narratives of change = • Societal discourses on change and innovation, i.e. sets of ideas,

concepts, metaphors, and/or story-lines about change and innovation

Game-changers = • Macro-developments that are framed as/ perceived to change the (rules,

field, players in the) ‘game’ of societal interaction • e.g. ‘globalisation’, ‘climate change’, ‘economic crisis’ Narratives respond to game-changers, while also (re)framing them. Social innovation initiatives play into that ‘discursive dynamic’.

http://www.transitsocialinnovation.eu/working-papers


Narratives of change on ‘New Economy’

Diversity of (new) ways of framing the (new) economy:

1. Green economy through degrowth & localization

2. Collaborative economy (incl. ‘sharing economy’)

3. Social entrepreneurship & social economy

4. Solidarity economy


‘post-capitalism’, ‘social impact economy’, or ‘gift economy’

Strands of New Economy

Social Innovation networks under study

Degrowth & Localization

Global Ecovillage Networks, Transition Towns, INFORSE, Time Banks

Collaborative Economy

Ashoka, Impact Hub, Time Banks, Fablabs, Hackerspaces, Science Shops, DESIS, Global

Ecovillage Network, Transition Towns

Solidarity Economy

RIPESS, Global Ecovillage Network. Time Banks

Social Entrepreneurship & Social Economy

Ashoka, Impact Hub, Time Banks, Credit Unions, DESIS, INFORSE

“It is very common for the social economy to be conflated with the solidarity economy. They are not the same thing and the implications of equating them are rather profound. The social economy is commonly understood as part of a “third sector” of the economy, complementing the “first sector” (private/profit-oriented) and the “second sector” (public/planned). (…) The solidarity economy seeks to change the whole social/economic system and puts forth a different paradigm of development that upholds solidarity economy principles.” “RIPESS Global Vision”, Manila 2013 – www.ripess.org


Renewing social relations

• Transforming societal as well as interpersonal relations

• Community building

• Relational values & principles

trust, reciprocity, equality, collectiveness, cooperation,

sharing, solidarity, inclusion, transparency,

openness, connectedness etc.


Renewing social relations (1)

“Economy is always a reflection of our social behaviour. And so you need to look at this if you want to change the economy also. (…) If we build a new currency, we need to anchor it in a new social system, in a new social behaviour of people, in order for it to work. Because if I don’t trust people, also Gift Economy doesn’t work at some point. […] I have my doubts [about alternative economic systems] if they are not based in community work.” (Interview TAM6)


Renewing social relations (2)

“It is about the quality of relationship and the way we operate with each other. (…). It is something around being part of a certain type of society, which attracts people here. Not just pure service relationship or nice products and services. That’s nice, but people come in for something bigger. The way of being together is why people come to our Hubs. We pride ourselves in building another kind of society.” (Member global Impact Hub team) “Trust, courage, collaboration”

public

private

STATE (public agencies)

MARKET (firms, business)

COMMUNITY (households, families etc.)

Avelino & Wittmayer 2015, Based on Evers & Laville 2004, Pestoff 1992

NON-PROFIT (NGOs, associations

foundations)

Challenging Institutional Boundaries


Origin of social innovation?

Social innovation as “innovative activities and services that are motivated by the goal of meeting a social need and that are predominantly developed and diffused through organisations whose primary purpose is social” 2007: p8


Across institutional boundaries Transformative social innovation ≈ • change in social relations, involving • new ways of doing, organizing, knowing and framing • challenging dominant institutions in the social context

Therefore, transformative social innovation: • can originate in each sector, in each institutional logic • changing relations between sectors & institutions • initiatives lack an ‘institutional home’ • hybrid forms (instead of ‘stretch & conform’) • they challenge institutional boundaries

social entrepreneurship

Challenging institutional boundaries

time exchange


science, education, knowledge, innovation,

design


public

private

PPP


COMMUNITY

(households, families etc.)


Avelino & Wittmayer 2015

NON-PROFIT (NGOs, associations

foundations)

Shifting power relations

(dis)empowerment

(Dis)empowerment challenges 4 cross-cutting themes

1. Governance

2. Social learning

3. Resourcing

4. Monitoring

Schizophrenic attitude of (local) governments: “We have political parties that come here and want to film us and believe that we are the future of social innovation in the city and then on the other side votes against us to kick us out of this place because they want to build a luxury hotel.”

Impact Hub Amsterdam team member


Prelimenary Policy Insights 1. Acknowledge inherent nature of changing social

relations, values & narratives of change

2. Allow for institutional hybridity and ‘institutional challenging’ (vs. stretch & conform)

3. Enable qualitative (self/peer)-monitoring of transformative impact (vs. project targets), incl. attention for unintended consequences

4. Involve & support translocal networks behind social innovation initiatives > ensure their local ties and encourage cross-network synergy & confrontation

5. Enable long-term and systemic support for social innovation beyond temporary projects

www.transitsocialinnovation.eu/resource-hub/transit-brief-1

28-29-20-31 OCTOBER & 11 DECEMBER | AMSTERDAM WWW.TRANSITIONACADEMY.NL/COURSE/SOTRA


Thank you. Questions?

Flor Avelino

DRIFT / Erasmus University Rotterdam

[email protected]

@FlorAvelino


Prelimenary Policy Insights 1. Acknowledge inherent nature of changing social

relations, values & narratives of change

2. Allow for institutional hybridity and ‘institutional challenging’ (vs. stretch & conform)

3. Enable qualitative (self/peer)-monitoring of transformative impact (vs. project targets), incl. attention for unintended consequences

4. Involve & support translocal networks behind social innovation initiatives > ensure their local ties and encourage cross-network synergy & confrontation

5. Enable long-term and systemic support for social innovation beyond temporary projects

www.transitsocialinnovation.nl / @TransitSI


Science & Social Innovation

Not one discipline or research area, but rather an overlap in interests in various (inter-) disciplines

http://www.nesta.org.uk/event/social-frontiers


Research aim TRANSIT

To develop a theory of transformative social innovation,

building on & contributing to existing theories of change,

grounded and tested in empirical data,

useful to academics & practitioners.

Conceptual challenge

Empirical challenge

WWW.TRANSITIONACADEMY.NL / @TACDRIFT

http://www.ecolise.eu/

Third Sector in the ‘Welfare Mix’

Pestoff 1992:25


Blurring, contested & shifting boundaries

? ?

?

planning permissions


public

private

STATE

MARKET COMMUNITY

employer / employee

poor / rich

benefactor/ beneficiary

large / small

civil servant / citizen

man/ woman

national/ local

ethnicities

young/ old

expert/

lay


Power inequalities

Social Innovation ≈

changing social relations ≈

shifting power relations

≈ contestation

≈ struggle & conflict

public

private



COMMUNITY (households, families etc.)

NON-PROFIT (associations,

NGOs)


politician, policy-maker, bureaucrat, citizen, voter

consumer, producer employer, employee, client, entrepreneur

activist, volunteer, member, benefactor,

researcher

resident, neighbour, family member,

friend

individual roles

transition management across Europe

87

Aberdeen (United Kingdom)

Ghent (Belgium)

Montreuil (France)

Rotterdam (The Netherlands)

Ludwigsburg (Germany)

MUSIC project www.themusicproject.eu

MUSIC – the movie

http://www.themusicproject.eu/film


DRIFT (Coordinator) Erasmus University of Rotterdam, the Netherlands

3S-group University of East Anglia, United Kingdom

ICIS University of Maastricht, the Netherlands

IHS Erasmus University of Rotterdam, the Netherlands

ULB-CEDD Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

AAU Aalborg University, Denmark

SPRU University of Sussex, United Kingdom

IEC-UNQ Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Argentina

COPPE Rio de Janeiro Federal University, Brasil

People-Environment Research Group Universidade da Coruna, Spain

BOKU University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, Austria

ESSRG research and development SME, Hungary

Contact: scientific coordinators Flor Avelino & Julia Wittmayer (DRIFT)

Partners

https://www.facebook.com/transitsocialinnovation

@TransitSI

https://www.linkedin.com/transitsocialinnovation

[email protected]

transitsocialinnovation.eu | si-drive.eu

Social Innovation 2015: Pathways to Social Change Research, policies and practices in European and global perspectives

Vienna, 18-19 November 2015

TRANSIT and SI-DRIVE bring together practitioners, policymakers and researchers from around the world to look at how social innovation can lead to societal transformations.

The first day focuses on the state-of-the-art in research, whereas the second centres on practice. Both feature a rich offering of interactive sessions and opportunities for networking. Registration is open & free

These projects have received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 613169 & 612870


Transformative social innovation

1. Renewing social relations (to people, nature, technology, economy)

2. Bringing narratives of change ‘to life’ (‘new economy’, ‘sustainability’, ‘resilience’, ‘social impact’)

3. Challenging institutions (questioning paradigms, regulations, dominant political ideologies)


Social Innovation Discourse

• ‘Social’ vs. ‘technological’ innovation

• More than social dimension of technological innovation

• The social as the object of innovation in itself

• “Immaterial and intangible” (Howaldt and Schwarz 2010)

• Beyond a technology focused innovation paradigm


Case-study Impact Hub

Global Impact Hub

Network

Impact Hub Amsterdam

Impact Hub Rotterdam

Impact Hub Sao Paolo

Netherlands

=

Impact Hub Association

Impact Hub Company

60+ Local Impact Hubs 20+ Impact Hubs ‘in the making’

Transnational

Network

Local

Manifestations

The big picture

Government & Nonprofit

Transcript of The big picture