Game changers and transformative social innovation. The case of the economic crisis and the new economy

This is the first paper of TRANSIT oriented to understand the processes of transformation related to social innovation.

The paper discusses transformative social innovation, conceptualised as the process through which social innovation contributes to societal transformation. A conceptual heuristic is introduced that proposes five foundational concepts to help distinguish between different pertinent ‘shades’ of change and innovation: 1) social innovation, (2) system innovation, (3) game-changers, (4) narratives of change and (5) societal transformation. The paper elaborates on the background and meaning of each of these concepts, with references to existing literature in transition studies and social innovation research, and through empirical illustrations. The recent economic crisis is taken as an empirical example of a ‘game-changing’ macro-development, and it is explored how this economic crisis relates to other forms of change and innovation. A central hypothesis is that societal transformation is the result of specific ‘co-evolutionary’ interactions between game-changers (e.g. the economic crisis), narratives of change (e.g. ‘a new economy’), system innovations (e.g. welfare system reform), and social innovations (e.g. new exchange currencies or new design practices). The paper elaborates on this hypothesis and formulates challenges for future research. [Authors’ abstract].

Tips for readers

• The first analytical section of the paper presents a conceptual heuristic. This heuristic serves as a cognitive map to empirically and theoretically investigate the central research question: how does social innovation interact with other forms of change and innovation, and how are actors (dis)empowered therein?
• A second key issue is that the conceptual heuristic serves to empirically explore how the different five shades of change and innovation interact. In this sense, the empirical work of section 3 (about economic crisis) is based on the implementation of the heuristic.
• So, If the reader prefers a deep analysis you have to read first section 2, but if reader is only interested in the relation between economic crisis and transformation and social innovation, please go directly to sections 3 to7. 

Citation

Avelino, F. Wittmayer, J., Haxeltine, A., Kemp, R., O’Riordan, T., Weaver, P., Loorbach, D. and Rotmans, J. (2014) Game-changers and Transformative Social Innovation. The Case of the Economic Crisis and the New Economy, [TRANSIT working paper], A deliverable of the project: “Transformative Social Innovation Theory (TRANSIT)” European Commission – 7th Framework Programme, Brussels: European Commission, DG Research, EU SSH.2013.3.2-1 Grant agreement no: 613169.