TRANSIT Keynote at Social Innovation Vienna 2015
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Learn all about transformative social innovation and the TRANSIT research project in an exciting keynote from its co-coordinator Flor Avelino of the Dutch Research Institute for Transitions (DRIFT) at Erasmus University Rotterdam. It was presented at the joint TRANSIT and SI-DRIVE "Social Innovation 2015: Pathways to Social Change" conference in Vienna on 18 November 2015. The TRANSIT project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 613169.
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TRANSIT Keynote at Social Innovation Vienna 2015
- 1. Transformative Social Innovation Insights from the TRANSIT-project Flor Avelino & Julia Wittmayer DRIFT (Dutch Research Institute for Transitions) This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 613169. Social Innovation 2015: Pathways to Social Change
- 2. www.transitsocialinnovation.eu 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: coordinators Flor Avelino, Julia Wittmayer, Matthew Bach (DRIFT) TRANSIT Partners https://www.facebook.com/transitsocialinnovation @TransitSI https://www.linkedin.com/transitsocialinnovation transit@drift.eur.nl
- 4. www.transitsocialinnovation.eu TRANSIT in 30 minutes 1. Conceptualising transformative social innovation 2. Empirical analysis approach 3. Mid-term insights: • Renewing social relations • Narratives of change & game-changers • Institutional challenges and politics
- 5. 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) TRANSIT definition of social innovation: • integrates these different dimensions • builds on relational theory • … >>>
- 6. TRANSIT definition of social innovation New Doing technologies practices materiality meanings visions images New Framing New Knowing knowledge competence learning modes of organisation governance New Organising Change in social relations Haxeltine et al. 2015
- 8. Example Community Energy Doing local energy production “prosumer” Framing Knowing decentral energy learning cooperatives Organising New relations neighbours, consumers - producers
- 14. www.transitsocialinnovation.eu High Expectations of Social Innovation Former EU commission president José Manuel Barroso: “If encouraged and valued, social innovation can bring immediate solutions to the pressing social issues that citizens are confronted with.” BEPA: “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”.
- 15. www.transitsocialinnovation.eu 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 conditions does social innovation contribute to transformative change? • how are people empowered (or disempowered) to contribute to such processes? • how do we conceptualise and study transformative social innovation?
- 17. www.transitsocialinnovation.eu Unpacking the social context 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, events or trends 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 co-evolve with game-changers. Social innovation initiatives play into that ‘discursive dynamic’.
- 19. Agency in transformative social innovation …challenges …alters …replaces AGENCY (dis) empowerment Haxeltine et al. 2015
- 21. www.transitsocialinnovation.eu Embedded case-study approach • Studying 20 transnational networks • Globally connected, locally rooted • In-depth case-studies on 40 local manifestations • Cross-comparative meta-analysis 80+ local manifestations • 13+ countries across EU & Latin-America
- 22. Phase 1: 12 in–depth case-study reports + synthesis report http://www.transitsocialinnovation.eu/discover-our-cases-2
- 31. www.transitsocialinnovation.eu Narratives of change on ‘New Economy’ Diversity of 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
- 32. “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
- 33. Meta-Narratives of Change <> Theories of Change incubating social entrepreneurshi p living in local, resilient communities political reform towards solidarity
- 34. www.transitsocialinnovation.eu Renewing social relations • Social change (e.g. ‘new economy’) needs to be based in the renewal of social relations • Community building • Relational values & principles trust, reciprocity, equality, collectiveness, cooperation, sharing, solidarity, inclusion, transparency, openness, connectedness etc. • Transforming interpersonal relations as well as societal relations at the institutional level.
- 35. www.transitsocialinnovation.eu Challenging institutional logics • Social innovation crosses the boundaries of different institutional logics: can originate in / apply to any sector (state, market, community, 3rd sector) • Changing relations between sectors & institutions • Initiatives challenge existing institutional logics and (re)- negotiate new / adapted institutional logics
- 37. …challenges …alters …replaces AGENCY (dis) empowerment (legal) recognition for social enterprises
- 38. …challenges …alters …replaces AGENCY (dis) empowerment Planning permissions & construction regulations
- 41. www.transitsocialinnovation.eu Dialectic & hybrid nature of TSI • Social innovations have a dialectic relation with established institutions and structures - they both challenge them and reproduce them. • SI-initiatives lack an ‘institutional home’ > both opportunity & barrier for transformative impact • Hybrid organizational forms instead of ‘stretch & conform’
- 42. www.transitsocialinnovation.eu Paradoxical & political strategies • Political struggle and negotiation • SI-Initiatives need a portfolio of different - often paradoxical - strategies towards institutions (complying, irritating, avoiding, resisting, compromising, hijacking, exploiting institutional pressures etc.) • Continuously update and adapt portfolio of strategies, and their narratives and theories of change, while holding on to original core intentions (integrity, autonomy, motivation)
- 44. http://www.transitsocialinnovation.eu/blog/engagement-workshop-on-transformative- social-innovation-insights-from-state-of-the-art-research-and-practice Transdisciplinary commitment 4 Themes • Governance • Social learning • Resourcing • Monitoring Workshops Knowledge group
- 45. www.transitsocialinnovation.eu/resource-hub/transit-brief-1 Kemp et al. 2015 Pel et al. 2015
- 48. www.transitsocialinnovation.nl / @TransitSI Thank you. Flor Avelino DRIFT Erasmus University Rotterdam avelino@drift.eur.nl @FlorAvelino Julia Wittmayer DRIFT Erasmus University Rotterdam wittmayer@drift.eur.nl
- 51. Schizophrenic nature 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
- 53. www.transitsocialinnovation.eu TRANSIT embedded case-study of the 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 Impact Hub Vienna Impact Hub London Impact Hub Belo Horizonte In-depth case- studies Comparative Meta-analysis
Editor's Notes
- My name is Flor Avelino. I am honored to stand before you here today to present the mid-term insights of the TRANSIT research project on Transformative social innovation.
- We work with 12 different research institutes across Europe and Latin America, bringing together leading scholars in a variety of fields, including sustainability transitions, innovation theory, science and technology studies, environmental geography, urban studies, social psychology, design thinking and political theory. The project is being coordinated by myself and other colleagues at DRIFT, the Dutch Research Institute for Transitions, which is part of the Erasmus University of Rotterdam.
- Above all, the TRANSIT research project is made up of over 30 researchers, which share an interest in innovation and transformative change. We have been given this great opportunity to collaborate on this 4 year research project, a journey that we started in 2014 and will officially finalise in 2017. So we are now exactly half way. [If my presentation in anyway gives the illusion of agreement or coherence, I would herewith like to make a clear disclaimer that we actually disagree, contest and debate on many things, especially now that we are mid-way of our project. In my presentation I will focus on the things that we more or less agree on].
- In the next 30 minutes, I will adress how we conceptualise transformative social innovation, our empirical analysis approach, and some of our most important mid-term insights so far.
- We build on earlier definitions of social innovation as new social practices, new social relations or wider systemic change. In our definition of social innovation, we integrate those different dimensions of change and innovation and we build on relational theory…
- … and we define social innovation as change in social relations, involving new ways of doing, organizing, knowing and framing. [New ways of doing include new practices, materialities, the use of new technologies. New types of knowledge, competences and learning, but also new ways of framing and interpret meaning, visions and images. New modes of organizing and conducting governance. All these dimensions of social innovation are intertwined. We see this process as social innovation process as intimately intertwined with technological innovation. This is important to emphasize because there is quite some critique on the very notion of social innovation from our colleagues that focus on socio-technical innovation. In socio-technical perspective, however, the focus often remains on the social dimensions of technological innovation. The concept of social innovation serves to move beyond the social as a dimension of technological innovation, towards specifying how and to what extent this social dimension is an objects of innovation in itself.]
- So let us take the example of community energy, in which there has been a significant growth in the past few years. There is obviously an important technological innovation component in this particular example, such as such as solar energy panels, windmills and other technologies that enable decentralised energy production. At the same time, community energy initiatives are also ‘socially innovative’ in the sense that they lead to a change in social relations between e.g. neighbours, between consumers and producers, between citizens and local governments. [We see social innovation process as intimately intertwined with technological innovation, as emphasised by the socio-technical transition perspective. In such a socio-technical perspective, however, the focus often remains on the social dimensions of technological innovation. The concept of social innovation serves to move beyond the social as a dimension of technological innovation, towards specifying how and to what extent this social dimension is an objects of innovation in itself.]
- This changing social relations come with new practices on local energy production – like going to the roof with your neighbours to attend to your collective solar panels. It involves and new and specific kind of knowledge and competences about decentral energy. There are also new ways of framing things around energy, such as the very concept of ‘community energy’, but also the make up for new words such as this idea of the ‘prosumer’ as a combination of a producer and consumer. Last but not least, it involves new forms of governance and organizational structures, such as the reinvention of the cooperative model.
- Here I consciously say a ‘reinvention’ of cooperatives, because as we all know, there is nothing entirely new about the idea of the cooperative, they have existed for ages. But we do see that they have been rediscovered and reinvented in the past few years, partly in response to the economic crisis, there was this boost of renewed interest. [Not only in the field of energy, but also in other sectors, As was illustrated when 2012 was declared to be the international year of cooperatives by the united nations.]
- We see a similar dynamic of reinvention in the case of complementary currencies. In principle, there is nothing new about this idea, as there have been local exchange trading systems for decades. But again, the idea has been reinvented and new combinations have been designed… such a for example the Brixton pound in London that can be paid with a mobile app… the Bristol pound that even enables citizens to pay there local taxes in the local currency.
- There are many more examples of social innovation, many of which you will hear about later throughout this conference. This bewildering amount of social innovation initiatives raises a question: what are the interrelations between all these initiatives? And what is their affect on the wider social context? [This is not just an academic question, this is also a question that initiatives themselves often have… if…]
- In the mean time, we observe that the world is facing an impressive amount of global challenges – natural disasters, wars, climate change, geo-political tensions, the economic crisis. Governments around the world, at local, national and international levels, are struggling to deal with these challenges, especially now in this era of budget cuts, austerity and a declining welfare state.
- There is an increasing expectation that these social innovations may provide an answer to dealing with these global challenges and that they can be instrumental for governments in finding solutions for contemporary problems.
- These kind of expectations are manifested in various policy discourses. Like the former president of the European commission stated: “if encouraged and valued, social innovation can bring immediate solutions to the pressing social issues citizens are confronted with” (Hubert 2012:vi). Or the Bureau of European Policy Advisors (BEPA) that claims that social innovation is an effective way of responding to social challenges at a time of major budgetary constraints, and that it can empower people to make better use of scarce resources.
- Underlying these high expectations is an implicit assumption that social innovation contributes to wider transformative change and empowers people to deal with societal challenges. In the TRANSIT project, we question that assumption and ask: how, to what extent and under which condition does social innovation contribute to transformative change? how are people empowered (or disempowered) to contribute to this? how do we conceptualise and study transformative social innovation? So if we start with that last question…
- … I already presented our concept social innovation. But how do we conceptualise transformative social innovation? We relate this to the social context and we define social innovation as being transformative when it challenges, alters and or replaces the dominant institutions in that social contexts. In order conceptualise this dynamics, we build on existing theories of transformative change, such as transition theory, system innovation theory, relational theory, institutional theory, discourse theory and political theory. Obviously, the social context is a very broad notion, and an important part of our theoretical and conceptual work is to un-pack the social context.
- One way to unpack the social context is through this notion of narratives of change, which we define as societal discourses i.e. sets of ideas, concepts, metaphors, and/or story-lines about change and innovation. These narratives of change relate to that we call ‘game-changers’: macro-developments that are framed as/ perceived to change the (rules, field, players in the) ‘game’ of societal interaction. Examples of game-changers are for instance ‘globalisation’, ‘climate change’, ‘economic crisis’. Narratives of change co-evolve with game-changer. For instance a narrative of change on the new economy… on the one hand this is partly a response to the game-changer of the economic crisis, but it is also affects how this economic crisis if framed and understood. Social innovation initiatives play into that discursive dynamics.
- A good is example is that of the transition towns network, a network of grassroots communities working on local resilience. Originally, the transition movement was initiated in order to deal with the twin game-changers of peak oil and climate change, and it positioned itself as a solution to both. Since the economic crisis of 2008 the movement has (re)positioned itself also as a response to global economic instability, focusing on the creation of resilient local economies. This is not only a strategic reframing, but also a genuine belief that the economy needs change for us to deal with challenges such as climate change. Iinterestingly it reinvents old solutions such as cooperatives, local production and complementary currency to deal with both climate change and economic challenges.
- In the TRANSIT project we are particularly interested in this type of agency, how actors, who are involved in initiatives and networks, are empowered (or disempowered) to contribute to such processes of transformative social innovation. In order to conceptualise our understanding of agency, we build on insights from institutional and social entrepeneurship studies, political theory and social psychology. We ask questions such as: how do actors relate to their social context? How do they play into these game-changers and narratives of change? How and to what extent do they challenge dominant institutions?
- With these kind of questions in mind, we are empirically analyzing 20 transnational networks that are working on social innovation.
- We study these 20 networks through an embedded case-study approach. Each of them is a transnational network in the sense that they all operate across national borders: they are very locally rooted, but also highly globally connected. We study how these networks operate as the transnational level and then we also zoom in on local manifestations of the networks. We conduct in-depth case-studies of 2 local manifestations for each network, so 40 in total, and then we extend our database by doing a comparative analysis of 4 local manifestations for each network, so a total of 80 local manifestations. These local manifestations are spread across 13 different countries in Europe and Latin America.
- Beginning of this year, we have finalized our first batch of 12 in-depth case-studies. We are now finalising the 2nd phase, and about the enter the 3rd phase of empirical research.
- One example of a local manifestation is the Impact Hub Amsterdam, a community of approx. 200 social enterpreneurs who not only share a working space but also a particular way of working, collaborating and learning how to have positive social impact while also being financially viable. The reasons why we find it important to take an embedded case-study approach, and not only study this as a local initiative, is because the majority of people when they walk into a space like this, they see a bunch of young hip-looking people, and they have no idea that there is in fact a whole global network behind it…
- … a network of more than 70 impact hubs, 20 impact hubs in the making, across 49 different countries, with 11.000 members. Not only is there the quantity of different impact hubs across the world, each of these impact hubs inspires other movements and initiatives in their localities…
- … this global network also shares a very specific theory of change on creating ecosystems for social entrepreneurship and an infrastructure for innovation, where they use the global network to continuously share and learn about ways to increase the impact of entrepreneurs and to accelerate the entrepreneurial journey.
- The pictures that you see here is of an ecovillage in the Netherlands – Ecodorp Bergen. An ecovillage is defined as an intentional community and human scale settlement where people aim to live in harmony with each other and with nature. Most people when they see this picture, they see a bunch of hippies across a camp fire and they would not particularly associate this with a initiative that has transformative impact. What most people don’t know however, is that…
- … there are in fact thousands of ecovillage like initiatives across the world. And not only are there thousands of such initiatives…
- … many of them are organized, such as for instance in the global ecovillage networks, which is a formal network that has existed for several decades and has several regional departments on each continent.
- Many of these Global Ecovillage Networks have quite professional websites, where they share numerous resources, such as the solution library where innovations from ecovillages are shared in a global database. One important way in which ecovillages reaches out to their social context and interact with more established institutions is through education, not only cooperating with schools and universities, but also with institutions like the United Nations to provide executive education on ecological design and sustainability leadership. The global ecovillage network also manages to get funding from institutions like the EU for doing research and facilitate capacity building, for instance in this EU funded project SIRCLE on social innovation for resilient communities.
- The Imapct Hub and the Ecovillage Network were just two examples – we study several others. These networks are intertwined with different and partly overlapping global social movements, and they work across many different domains and sectors, Some networks focus on very specific topics and issues, such as agriculture, food to housing, design, energy, finance or science, while others focus on more general principles of democracy and participation. Various networks work with the idea of labs and experimental spaces, such as Living labs, Fablabs or Hackerspace, which includes digital fabrication workshops where people come together to make things. We also research some more politically oriented networks that also target governments, such as RIPESS, a political movement for the promotion of solidarity economy, or the basic income earth network which connects people that are committed to the concept of basic income. We also study networks that work with specific economy concepts, such as the sharing economy, time banking and credit unions which are member-owned financial cooperatives. [Some of them are focus on social entrepreneurship, such as Impact Hub and Ashoka, while others are more focused on local resilient communities, such as the transition network and the global ecovillage network].
- Actually, all he networks that we study, also those that are not focuses on finance or economics, all of them emphasize the need for a new economy. We have compared and analysed our first batch of case-studies in terms of how they relate to new economy, and we found 4 main clusters of new economy thinking: Green economy through degrowth & localization Collaborative economy (incl. ‘sharing economy’) Social entrepreneurship & social economy – which are often used interchangeably. Solidarity economy If you look at this from the perspective of mainstream economics, these 4 streams may seem very similar, and they can go together, but when you zoom in, there are also quite some differences.
- As eloquently described by one of cases of the RIPESS network on their website, they have a piece where they emphasize that “It is very common for the social economy to be conflated with the solidarity economy, but that they are not the same thing and the implications of equating them are rather profound.” They argue that the “social economy” is a third sector phenomena that complements the normal state and the government, while the solidarity economy really “seeks to change the whole social-economic system and puts forth a different paradigm” of development based on solidarity economy principles. So in a network like RIPESS there are quite some people that can actually be quite critical of a network such as Impact Hub, because they argue that social entrepreneurship is not enough to really change the economic system towards a more solidary one.
- So we clearly see that the networks have very different narratives of change. In fact, each local initiative has its own very particular local narrative of change… but we can also see that they share a meta-narratives with other initiatives. In our first round of comparative empirical analysis, we have reconstructed three such particular meta-narratives: The narrative about social change happening through incubating social entreprneurship, by network such as the Impact Hub and Ashoka The narrative that upholds that social change requires us to change our daily life-styles and live in local and more resilient communities, as we see in the ecovillage and transition network The narrative that emphasizes that we need fundamental political reform to change the capitalist power structures towards a system of solidarity These different meta-narratives also reveal fundamentally different theories of change about how change comes about. These theories of change inform specific actions on the ground. Because it is important to emphasize that these narratives and theories are not just about talking about change and telling each other stories, these narratives and theories are very much alive in practices on the ground, where houses are being built, pieces of land are beign transformed, community-gardens are set-up, start-ups are born, there are negotiations with governments and so.
- Underlying these different narratives, theories and practices, there are a few commonalities, one being that nearly all networks and local initiatives emphasise that social change needs to be anchored in the renewal of social relations, and that a concept such as the sharing economy does not work if there is no trust between people, for example. All networks stress the importance of community building and re-appreciation and rebuilding of values and principles such as trust, reciprocity, equality, collectiveness, cooperation, sharing, solidarity, inclusion, transparency, openness, connectedness etc. Most networks also emphasize that such values are not only necessary at the level of interpersonal relations, but that there also needs to be a change of societal relations, also at the more organizational and institutional level.
- Social innovation often cross the boundaries between different institutional logics and they can can originate in sector, wether it is the government, the market, the 3rd sector, or informal communities. Social relations are not only changing at the interpersonal level but also between sectors and institutions, between government and market, or between state and community. We observe that social innovations initiatives challenge existing institutional logics of these sectors, and also that they adapt and renegotiate new institutional logics. [Some people associate social innovation as something that comes from a particular sector, such as the community or the 3rd sector].
- For example, the network of Time-Banking – the social innovation they offer is reciprocal service-exchange, which can be contrasted with the dominant way in which our current economic system organizes service exchange primarily through formal money transactions. One way in which Time Banks has succeeded in altering institutions is that for example in the UK they have renegotiated an adapted a special taxing regulation for reciprocal service exchange.
- Regarding the Impact Hub’s work on social entrepreneurship, one of the main things that they aim to challenge is this strict division that we currently have between for-profit and non-profit. One of the concrete ways in which the Impact Hub concretely challenges that particular institutional logic, is by contributing to efforts to get the social enterprise legally recognized as a legal entity in its own right. Many countries in the EU already recognize social enterprises, but in the Netherlands this is not the case yet – the Impact Hub is one of the organization that puts such issues on the agenda.
- One of the many social innovations that ecovillages across the world are working on is the ecological construction of affordiable houses that are cooperatively owned by communities, which starkly contrasts with our current spatial planning system that is dominated by central planning and a commercial market of project-development and construction. Ecovillages challenge this institutional logic especially in their negotiations and confrontations with local governments regarding planning permissions and construction regulations.
- These kind of instances when SI-initiatives interact with institutions are particularly interesting because this is the intersection where the transformative impact can occur, but it is at the same time also the point where social innovation can get stifled and suppressed. As our TRANSIT colleagues formulated it, the institutionalization of social innovation always finds itself in between transformation and capture.
- We argue that social innovations have a dialectic relation with established institutions and structures, they challenge them but at the same time also reproduce them. The observation that social inovation initiatives often lack an institutional home is on the one hand a barrier for initiatives in terms of gaining resources and stability, but it is at the same time also an opportunity for contributing to institutional change. You see this particularly in the way that initiatives develop hybrid organsational forms – rather than stretching and conformign to an existing institutional logic, they creatively combine bits and pieces from different logics, combinging different legal entities and regulations, and sometimes even co-creating entirely new legal arrangements with governments that are being confronted by this new reality.
- These kind of dialectic and hybrid dynamics also means that transformative social innovation requires alot of political struggle and negotiation, which SI-initiatives are not always prepared or willing to take up. SI-initiatives need to have portfolio of different and often paradoxical strategies toward institutions. And because the social context in which these institutions are embedded is constantly changing, initiative also need to contineously update and adapt their strategies, and also be flexible about repositioning their narratives and theories of change, while mean while also holding on to their original core intentions. It is our hypothesis is that the more initiatives manage to have such paradoxical and felxible strategies, the higher their transformative agency will be.
- So far, these kind of propositions are based on our in-depth case-studies so far, as well as insights from existing theories of change. Our challenge for the coming years is to test, adapt and refine our theoretical concepts and propositions by testing these in a cross-comparative meta-analysis of our networks in 80 local manifestations. Therein we will focus on Critical Turning Points, moments of breakthroughs, setback and surprises that initiatives encounter. We are going to develop a database where we will reconstruct transformative social innovation timelines that initiatives experience, including their encounters with institutions. It is our hope that the insight from this comparative endeavor will also be insightful for practitioners and policy-makers who want to increase the transformative impact of social innovation.
- Within TRANSIT, we have a strong transdisciplinary commitment, where we have set our selves the ambition to translate our research observations into relevant insights on practical issues such as issues of governance, learning, resourcing and monitoring. In order to test and increase the practical relevance of our work, we organise several workshops through the project, as well as a knowledge group in which we involve 15 policy-makers, activists and entrepreneurs to give us critical and constructive feedback on the practical relevance of our work.
- One of the tangible results so far is that we have consolidate our work in two TRANSIT briefs, in which we summarize our mid-term insights, trying to go beyond scientific discussions more accessible insights. Both briefs are available at this conference in printed form, or otherwise you can find them on the website.
- For those of you that would like to have more background on the scientific discussions - we have a working paper series where we discuss several of the topics that were mentioned in this presentation in more in-depth.
- And of course, we have several deliverables. I can particularly recommend our deliverable D3.2. where we present our theoretical propositions and theoretical literature review, as well as our methodological guidelines.
- I have been inspired by… calls for the creation of grassroots narratives and social movements as a response to fundamentalist extremism and xenophobia, to foster intercultural solidarity . And there are many inspiring examples of concrete initiatives that take up this challenge, such as the example of magdas hotel where some of as are staying… a hotel that involves
- [Many of us know these examples… We all know the case of AirBnB, where the idea of informally and temporarily sharing your house with travelers from all over the world, has been translated into a successful business model that is being commercially exploited]. The idea of informally sharing your house was originally used in networks such as couchsurfing, where you could sleep on somebody else’s couch for free. Some people would argue that AirBnB is an example of how this idea was captured by commercial interests which reproduce the dominant institution of capitalism and consumption. Others however, would argue that AirBnB is in fact an example of socially innovative idea that has gained transformative impact, in the sense that it is challenging and replacing parts of the existing accommodation industry. We see these kind of dynamics and discussions n each of our networks under study and in the social innovations that they are working on.
- This paradoxical relation between social innovation and establish institutions in government is nicely illustrated by this quote from someone from the impact Hub who describes the local government as schizophrenic… … and it is interesting to see how the Impact Hub manages to….
- Earlier I mentioned the examples of community cooperatives and complementary currencies, which are new but they are being reinvented. The economic crisis was a critical game-changer in this reinvention and a network like the Transition Network has played a key role in re-appropriating methods such as energy cooperatives and complementary currencies as local solutions in response to both climate change and the economic crisis.