What about the "social" in "social innovation"?

What about the “social” in “social innovation”?

lessons from the CRESSI Project

Nadia von Jacobi University of Pavia

Brussels, 26.10.2015 [email protected]

Index • Social in ends, social in means • The Capability Approach as conceptual guide • Social ends (I): pluralism and complexity • Social means (I): agency and empowerment • Social ends (II): social forces and their gaps • Social means (II): affecting social forces • Practical Implications

Nadia von Jacobi Brussels, 26.10.2015

Social Innovation in

“the development and delivery of new ideas and solutions

(products, services, models, markets, processes) at different socio-structural levels that

intentionally seek to change power relations and

improve human capabilities, as well as the processes via which these solutions are carried out”

(Nicholls and Ziegler, 2014:14)

Brussels, 26.10.2015 Nadia von Jacobi

Coop. Int e Pol. per lo Sviluppo

social ends social means

Social Innovation pursues and consists of...

Social ends: why Capabilities? • expanding capabilities • more than resources • differences in conversion • the role of agency • choices • observing functionings • plural values Social progress as

‘the expansion of opportunities’ Brussels, 26.10.2015 Nadia von Jacobi

Amartya Sen’s Development as Freedom

Conversion factors Capability set

individual traits

local mechanisms of (re)distri-

bution

Income

Institu-tions

Infra-structure

Possible Choices

Individual and collective resources


A Capability Approach perspective


Agency

"what a person is free to do and to achieve

in pursuit of whatever goals he or she regards as important"

(Sen, A. 1985, 206)


Agency in society

"what one can do as member of a group, collectivity

or political community " (Alkire, S. 2009, 37)


Empowerment access to

information

local organizational

capacity

social mobilization

participation in decision-

making

accountability


Agency and Power

Agency

self-direction

Power

power over power to

power with power from

within

Empower-ment

in society


Synthesis

Social Innovation

Change in Process

Addressing a Social Need

Coop. Int e Pol. per lo Sviluppo

Social progress from a capabilities perspective:

Expansion of

substantive freedoms

Expansion of process freedoms


Capability deprivation and marginalisation


• lack of resources • reduced conversion ability

Lack of Opportunities

• insufficient power • forces affecting choices

Lack of Agency

Marginalisation

”the result of a social process that transforms

personal, social and environmental traits into potential factors of

disadvantage" (Chiappero, E. and von Jacobi, N. 2014,3)


Multiple role of social and environmental factors

adapted from CRESSI

Brussels, 26.10.2015 Nadia von Jacobi Agency

An integration to the Capability Approach: social theory


CRESSI based on Beckert (2010)

bottom-up pressure for CHANGE


• Adopts a multidimensional, plural appreciation of disadvantage in society and searches for equally multidimensional and plural strategies to overcome it

• Marginalisation is ‘institutionally embedded’ (Beckert, 2009: 264), and requires the targeting of social processes

Synthesis of CRESSI framework


Practical Implications

Effective social innovation

capable of tackling marginalisation depends on:

the active participation of marginalized individuals in a process that addresses

the social structuration of their disadvantage


Which frictions and challenges in combining top-down implementation logic and the Capability Approach


Risks of top-down logic • concentrate on intentional creation • simplify the motivations of people • homogenise people into ‘target groups’ in line with

specific labels (e.g. unemployed, youth, women, etc.)

• underestimate the complexity of reality • presume neutrality with respect to existing

asymmetries of power • evaluate results and outcomes on the base of

predefined indicators

Coop. Int e Pol. per lo Sviluppo Nadia von Jacobi

Nadia von Jacobi

Top-down-logic Capabilities Perspective

ultimate scope pre-defined targets outcomes that people value

focal point production of things influence on the lives of people

attention/focus intended effects full range of effects (including unintended)

general objectives project/policy objectives opportunity freedoms

specific objectives target outcomes local empowerment with learning, visioning, choice and cooperation

procedural focus engineering process freedoms

aims for improvement efficiency in use of resources; facilitate coordinated action

informed deliberation, affect social structuration

transversal characteristics transparency, achievability, accountability

pluralism, tolerance, equity

discourse target population/beneficiaries

agents of change

Brussels, 26.10.2015

Risks of top-down logic

to undermine pluralism in values

to hamper agency

to prevent changes in social structuration


Interdependencies: goodness of fit

Institution

Belief system

Comple-mentary

Institution


Interdependencies: goodness of fit

Belief system

Comple-mentary

Institution


Which value added of social innovation?

• Identification of collective interests

• Formulation of requests

Collective Preferences

• Experiments • Failures,

adjustments, new attempts

Shared Struggles • Identification of

collective interests • Consolidation

Institutionalization

Ownership

Adaptation

Coevolution of different factors

Cultural freedom, pluralism of values


Cultural Freedom and Social Progress

Efforts for Social

Progress

More Opportunities

Engaging in Activities

In Line with Own Values

New Goals for Social

Progress


Political competition, values, experiments

Political Competition

Values and Beliefs

(Pluralism)

Opening up to New

Solutions

Encounters, Experiments


Encounters, experiments, competition

Reduction of social cleavage

Network of unrelated

people

Social Capital


Endogeneous growth and its components

Engaging in problem solving

Experience and general knowledge creation

Sharing of knowledge, replication, spill-overs

Increases in productivity and growth

Cumulative


CRESSI Publications • D1.1. Chapter 3 How can Sen’s ‘Capabilities Approach’ contribute to understanding the role of social innovations for the marginalised? (Chiappero and von Jacobi), CRESSI Working Paper 3/2015 • D3.5. Toolkit (Methodology) (von Jacobi, Chiappero, Giroletti, Maestripieri, Ceravolo), CRESSI Working Paper 16/2015 • D6.1. EU Public Policy, Social Innovation and Marginalisation: Reconciling ambitions with policy instruments (Edmiston), CRESSI Working Paper 18/2015


Thank you for your attention

[email protected]

What about the "social" in "social innovation"?

Government & Nonprofit

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