SI-DRIVE Final Conference 2017
Social Innovation and Social Change – How to increase the impact of social innovation
Josef Hochgerner, Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI) and European School of Social Innovation (ESSI) 24th of October 2017, 3:30 p.m.
The Royal Flemish Academy of Science and the Arts, Brussels
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The key principle
of understanding social innovation is – contrary to many common‚prima vista‘ assessments – the notion of innovation, not doing something ‚social‘ in the sense of welfare, care or aid.
According to the mainstream concept of innovation, an innovation is considered a product, process or service which proves superior to other (older or contemporaneous) products etc., and thus becomes successfully introduced in markets, to emphasize this a bit: in the market economy.
Schumpeter in his very original publication of the ‚Theory of economic development‘ (1912) pointed out that business firms, an SME or multi-national corporation alike, are deemed to permantly develop new products and processes by recombination of the production factors (soil, labour, capital). Thus an economic enterprise actually must re-invent itself to avoid downturns of revenues and potential collapse.
Innovation
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As ‘economic development’ is in the core of innovation, so is ‘societal development’ in the core of social innovation: “An innovation is … social to the extent that it varies social
action, and is socially accepted and diffused in society” (D 1.3, 58)
The SI-DRIVE approach to social innovation looks out for new combinations of practices, i.e. new figurations of doing things, of modes and patterns of social action. They are
prompted and adopted by actors (individuals, groupings or any type of organisation) in parts or – rarely – the whole of society.
Regarding the commonly used – but widely indeterminate – term ‘social change’, social
innovations may be drivers or transformers, as well as subject to change by ‘social dynamics’
(more appropriate than ‘social change’). Yet whatever term – social change or social dynamics – we use: Social innovation is part of it, and its impact depends on the socio- demographic properties, expectations, opinions and interests of those affected.
Impact is the essential criterion to identify new practices as social innovation. However, the prefix social does not necessarily imply that impacts will be ‘good’ or even ‘better’ for all affected. Whether or not a social innovation proves better, as good as, or worse than previous and competing figurations of practices is a very special task in the processes of initiation, implementation and analyses of impact(s) born by social innovations.
Social innovation
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What makes a figuration of new practices a ‘social innovation’?
Award criteria applied by „SozialMarie“, Austrian Prize for Social Innovation: www.sozialmarie.org
Characteristic properties of the new practices in the course of SI development
Novelty of the idea: Rarely in absolute terms, usually relatively better in respect of the location, time, social strata, or field of action concerned
Social quality of the intervention: Involvement and active participation (involvement) of the beneficiaries and other stakeholders
Sustainability of the implementation: The new practices are accepted, adopted and performed by the those concerned
Notable impact: Effective practices become operational and replicated
beyond the pioneering initiative (project); replicability and up- or outscaling
instigate or modify social change
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Social change
To consider ‚social dynamics‘ avoids the potential trap of looking at social change as a sequence of seemingly stable states of societal development. (D 1.3, 6)
This again depicts an analogy to Schumpeters basics of economic thinking, namely to consider economic development not as moves from one stable state to another one, but to see it as chains of unstable equilibria, not leaning towards a stable state, but innately to change.
Social change is not simply the combined result of all social innovations. The key issue in understanding and analysing the relationship between social innovation and social change is to
1. identify and determine the characteristic features of ongoing social dynamics (change) in a society at a certain time and/or in a particular region on the one hand; and to
2. establish a typology of social innovations, based on what sort of impact they deliver, on the other hand.
A third step of analysis would then allow to clarify the interplay, reciprocal effects and mutual reactions between specific social innovations and the broader waves of social change in a society under concrete historic and regional conditions. (cf. → Slide # 7)
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This definition provides guidance into which domains we should look at when analysing impact of social innovation. However, it should not lead to the tempting conclusion, abstract indicators of structural, institutional or behavioural change would allow factual measurement of impact. Instead, if we want to single out impacts of social innovations, we need to stick to the concept of – say – mutations of processes in order to identify the
endogen, relational and reflexive impact of social innovations in the complex and wide arena of social more general social dynamics.
Characteristic features of social dynamics
What is „social change“ from a sociological point of view?
⇨ Zapf (2003) denotes five dimensions or levels of social change:
Socio-economic structures and social systems
Institutions (social and adminstrative/organisational ones)
Cultural patterns („Frames of reference“, what is „normal“)
Behaviour (individuals, groups, responses to norms, values)
Consciousness (perceptions, acceptance, resistance, hopes/anxieties)
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Established social and cultural patterns
… maintained by – relatively stable – “frames of reference“
[facilitating easy comprehension of, and compliance with what is „normal“]
Selective perceptions
Filtered Information
Knowledge,
awareness
RolesValues Norms Relations
N ew p ra cti ce s = s o ci a l i n n o va ti o n s
Behaviour,
social action &
potential change Opinions,
attitudes
„environs“: media, societal institutions, networks, peer groups ....
The ‘CULTURAL LEARNING CYCLE‘
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A first proposition to narrow down the vast and unclear, often even confusing multitude of
activities termed ‚social innovation‘ in all sectors of the society, was laid out by BEPA (2010, 26f.):
The range of changes in social dynamics
Three perspectives to analyse objectives and impact:
o The „social demand“ perspective,
o The „societal challenges“ perspective, and o The „systemic change“ perspective
Agnès Hubert et al. (BEPA – Bureau of European Policy Advisors) 2010: „Empowering people – driving change.
Social Innovation in the European Union.“ http://ec.europa.eu/bepa/pdf/publications_pdf/social_innovation.pdf
Most social innovations address direct needs of certain groups of people, and usually they have limited potential to scale. However, social relevance must not be seen as a result of scaling; relevance stems from the urgency of needs and potential effects of unmet needs.
When it comes to social innovations adressing (big) societal challenges, or even systemic change (transformative social change), it becomes more difficult to (a) find examples, and (b) to collate concrete effects (impact) of social innovations to such major and sometimes disruptive developments. - Last but not least: It makes a big difference, if a social
innovation aims at changes on community- or on societal level! [cf. → slide # 10]
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Global challenges are rapidly changing living and working conditions at individual, groups, organisations‘, and societal levels
Climate Change Environment
Energy
Mechanisation
Industry 4.0, synthetic biology, nukes, ...
Labour
Ways of working, working conditions, salaries, security, alienation …
Public finances
Taxes, debts, social systems, health & care
Conflicts
National, religious, civil and international wars, flight and migration
Poverty
Income disparities, centre-periphery, exclusion, crime …
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Society
Shaped on (historic, regional, economic) purposes → states, nations, corporations …
Formally defined and documented
membership, changeable (e.g. citzenship)
Rules and regulations shall be in line with values, yet are dominant
Rules are legitimate and binding beyond personal relations (e.g. in „communities“!)
Functions in principle independently from individuals (depiction in an image: Society appears „Domino-like“)
Members: may vary, according to rules, official roles are widely independent from individual preferences.
Society can expand (almost) unlimited, includes a lot of communities; and may –
Community
Emerges and develops in „organic“ (from
„blood“ to associations of likeminded)
Emotional connexions, membership is (basicly) un-conditional and subjectiv after birth,
initiation ritual adoption …
Examples: Family relatives, „gang“ political groupings … danger: „People‘s community“
[„Volksgemeinschaft“]
Common values dominate rules
Existence and functioning depends on – particular – individuals (often charismatic leader/ “Führer“; depiction: „Puzzle“)
Members: substitution rather difficult or even impossible, offices/duties/functions formed more by incumbents than rules.
Communities are limited in size/numbers, do neither necessarily create, nor
The scope of social innovations: „Society“ ≠ „community“ …
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Not one big innovation, nor a series of innovations only!
→ result of a powerful socio-technical system, enabled by a particular
innovation culture
Society generates innovations to expand ranges of action ...
Earth rise from moon orbit, December 24, 1968
A walk in the sunshine, July 21, 1969
... and reaches sometimes out to very spectacular achievements:
„Sputnik shock“ in the U.S. → and the vision thereafter
The dominant innovation culture mainly drives changes in „societal sediments“ by technology:
(1) Technology made ‚skin‘ of society (2) The power structures in society (3) Modes of communication in
society, between individuals, organisations, organisms and artifacts
(4) Frames of reference, shaping manners, mores, myths & rites (5) Emotional balance in a society
(security / insecurity, hope / fear,
empathy / hatred … )
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All innovations are socially relevant, i.e. they impact all sediments – yet: different degrees and pace, and by diverse methods
Technology innovations affect …
The physical environment
Power relations
Communication
Frames of referenceEm
otio nal bal anc e
Env iro
n- me
nt Power
Communication
Frames of reference
Emotional balance
Social innovations affect …
Over- laps
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A short outlook on future impact measurement
Only if implemented and accepted by people and social entities concerned, new practices or varied forms of social action cross the threshold from an idea or invention to become an innovation, visible and determinable by its impact.
Thus the implementation of new practices asserting impact on living and working
conditions (ways of life), either of individuals, certain social groupings and organisations in parts or the whole of a society shall be considered social innovation – and may alter or nudge social change in some way.
SI-DRIVE was not intended to deliver a ready-made or even tested methodology to
measure impact of social innovations. Nevertheless, a promising strategic perspective for future research might be developed along the following lines (keywords):
Pull together statistical data available from around the world indicating degrees of human and social development in countries and world regions (UN: HDI, World Bank: World Development Indicators, Social Progress Index, World Wealth Report, … and more).
Analyse the strong and weak points in comparative studies to identify country-wise pressing issus on either scale (immediate social demand, societal challenges, systemic and transformative change).
Then relate social innovations in the respective countries to the dominant issues to measure impact per country or region.
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From cases of social innovations in the SI-DRIVE database we learned that some form of co-creation is common to all social innovations At the same time, social innovations seem to provide at least some kind of empowerment at least one generic social impact. In
addition, social innovations are embedded in a great variety of eco-systems, ranging from conducive to hostile socio-economic and cultural environments.
When analysing such properties, objectives and processes of the cases six typical models of social innovations turn out to appear widely spread across the world regions
surveyed:
(1) Social innovation as new or improved service
(2) The DIY (Do-it-yourself) model: Social innovation as self-help (3) Social innovation emerging from co-creation
(4) Social innovation as a cooperative
(5) Social innovation initiated to drive social change
(6) Support measures improving the social innovation eco-system
Impact characteristics of diverse types of social innovation
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(1) Still necessary: Improve the comprehension of what social innovation is – and is not – in the general public, scientific, political and practitioners’ communities.
(2) Intensify learning from social innovation projects (successful ones as well as failed attempts), in particular concerning procedures leading to institutionalisation of SI.
(3) Establish platforms and institutional collaboration among social innovation organisations of different kinds to better provide education, training, research and advisory services.
(4) Develop stable social innovation eco-systems in cities, regions, countries and on
European levels; this requires close collaboration with administrative bodies from local till European levels, yet also with actors and carriers of RTDI policies.
(5) Quality, ambitious claims, competence and preparedness to take risks above quantity and social innovation labelling.
Conclusion: Ways to increase impact (very pragmatic)
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www.si-drive.eu
Thank you very much!
Prof. Dr. Josef Hochgerner, Zentrum für Soziale Innovation, ZSI
Centre for Social Innovation, Vienna. www.zsi.at, hochgerner@zsi.at
