Social innovation : What is falling apart and what is being built?

1. Social innovation : What is falling apart and what is being built? Denis Harrisson, CRISES UQAM Challenge Social Innovation Vienna, Austria 19-21 September 2011

2. Theory • Formulating a conception of social creativity to resolve human and social problems • Dealing with the flow of knowledge, ideas and resources • Developing a conception of the connection with social relationships, civil society and democracy.

3. One constant and two forms • Citizen participation in the conception of solutions to problems in a spirit of co-construction with other social actors who hold power • Idealistic and Realistic

4. Second Modernity • Weakening of the Welfare State • Growing individualisation of responsibility for “life cycles” • Domination by large multinational corporations in a context of economic globalisation

5. Whatisbeingbuilt? • The strength of community links • The capacity of civil society initiatives • The existence of diversified networks allowing for the flow of social actors from various socio-economic circles, resources and information • The links between government, market and civil society must be rethought

6. General Interest • Social innovation lies within the scope of the general interest to create greater social cohesion between the various groups and socio-economic categories that are attempting a rapprochement to narrow gaps • Social innovation is truly an initiative of civil society, filling gaps left by market, government and family regardless of the type of society in which it is rooted

7. Service & Process • Service may be assessed from the standpoint of performance, efficiency and effectiveness and in terms of cost, accessibility and ability to deal with a problem, removing this problem or at least diminishing it. • The process may be assessed from the standpoint of legitimacy, namely an ability to handle the problem adequately, taking account of the measures for participation, the institutional forms of these measures and the possible compromises among a range of expressed interests, considering the values to be defended and maintained, keeping them intact and authentic.

8. Social Entrepreneur • Leading figure • Creative person endowed with cognitive complexity and greater tolerance toward ambiguity • Comfortable with contradictory knowledge • Thinking is intuitive and spontaneous • Convert knowledge into its own language and convey it to the broader community

9. Network and Trust • Social Capital Llinks with associations, organisations and institutions • Trust • Trust in others and in long-lasting institutions. • Trust is what allows for dreaming, for creating promising long-term projects, anticipating the future. • Trust is also what allows for action.

10. Conclusion • Connectionist World • Personnal and Collective Initiative • Building Social Capital • Local and Community Dimension • Face-to-Face Relationship