We explore the enabling role that experiential surfacing plays in helping to foster the capacity to initiate and sustain social innovation. Building from institutional theory in sociology, we argue that because systemic social patterns are embedded in everyday interactions, an experiential approach to organizing offers rich possibilities for understanding and ultimately transforming deep-seated institutional patterns. We examine the relationship between the practice of experiential surfacing – which we refer to as ‘inscaping’ – and various dimensions of social innovation. We illustrate this relationship with examples of social innovation springing from five organizations: a meals-onwheels service, a cleaning company, an eco-learning village, a campus sustainability fund, and an urban public school. We discuss a number of specific inscaping dynamics that contribute to social innovation: permeability, dialogue, pattern recognition, disrupting social identity and role boundaries, empathy, and growth orientation. [Authors' abstract.]
Nilsson, Warren and Paddock, Tana (2013) Inscaping : exploring the connection between experiential surfacing and social innovation (Paper presented at the international conference Social Frontiers : The next edge of social innovation research, at GCU's London Campus on 14th and 15th November 2013).
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