Social Innovation in the Public Sector
EGPA Conference 11 Septembre 2013 Edinburgh
Victor BekkersErasmus University Rotterdam
Content • Social innovation as a rising star and the
LIPSE project.• Why is social innovation a ‘magic concept’? • What is social innovation?• What are drivers behind social innovation?• What about citizens and governments?• Social innovation as a magic concept: some
questions?
Social innovation: a rising star• “combines public and private resources to grow
promising community-based solutions that have evidence of results …. America's challenges are being developed every day at the grass roots -- and government shouldn't be supplanting those efforts, it should be supporting those efforts” (Obama’s social innovation fund)
• “The idea is to give local communities more power and to encourage people to play an active role in these communities. The assumption is that these communities set up co-operations, charities, mutual and other social enterprises to deal with the local and concrete needs that citizens encounter. (Cameron on the Big Society)
• Social innovation is “ about new ideas that work to address unmet needs. We simply describe it as innovations that are both social in their ends and in their means” (European Commission)
LIPSE To identify relevant drivers and barriers that explain the
success or failure of social innovations in the public sector, and to give policy recommendations.
To learn from cross-national and cross-sectoral comparisons
to understand how social innovation practice convergence or diverge between states
To advise policymakers and researchers on potential future pathways for social innovation in the public sector that can enhance productivity, growth and competitiveness in countries
To contribute to the governance of social innovation in the public sector
Social innovation as a magic concept
• Four developments merge:– How to meet new societal challenges, like
global warming, (youth) employment, growing elderly population? Responsiveness of governments
– How to deal with needs that really matter to citizens and companies? Efficacy and legitimacy of governments
– How deal with the budgettary crisis of government? Austerity and efficiency
– How to make use of the self-organizing power in society? How to use this power of individuals and communities?
Social innovation as a magic concept
• To produce need-oriented outcomes• Open process of co-creation with relevant
stakeholders: collaborative innovation networks• Game-changer: fundamentally changes existing
relations, positions and playing rules• Beyond technological innovations• Re-allocation of public values thereby
reinventing publicness
The essence of social innovation• Innovation as a process
– Learning, trial and error, experimenting
– Qualitative discontinuity with the past (radical, transformative change)
– Ecological perspective• Co-evolution between
different environments • Interaction between
different stakeholders• Specific (institutional)
environment and local embeddness
Building blocks of drivers and barriers
• The broader innovation environment
• The innovation network
• The innovation process• The diffusion and
adoption process
Drivers and barriers of social innovation
A. Innovation environment
A2. Legal culture in the public sector
A3. State & governance traditions
A4. Resources & resource dependency in organizations & networks
B. Innovation process
B1. Linking leadership
B2. Support & co-creation of end-users
B3. Risk management
B4. ICT & Social Media
C1. Resources within organizations
C2. Innovation champions
C3. Learning processes
C4. Isomorphism C. Innovation adoption
A1. Political & administrative context
Citizens and governments• Citizen participation
– As co-implementor of existing rules and programs
– As co-creator or co-design – As initiator : self-organization
• Expectations regarding possible outcomes
• Expectations regarding efforts to participate
• Level playing field and ‘weak interests’
• Representativeness of voices
Citizens and governments• Governments
– Formal witdrawal but informal steering problem of ‘letting go’ and ‘the open back door’
– Persistence of existing practices
– Weak interest and level playing field
But also: Self-organization paradox: self-organization requires strong
government involvement???
Social innovation as a magic concept: some questions?
• Is social innovation more than a rhetoric strategy to legitimize the withdrawal of government and the downsizing of the welfare state?
• Is social innovation as form ‘conspicious production’: it is the process that counts: inspiration, sense making and learning that matter not the outcomes that have been produced?
• How relevant are the outcomes and to whom? Cui bono? The proof is in eating the pudding
• How are these outcomes being legitimized? New values and the re-allocation of existing values: re-definition of (in)equality, solidarity and freedom? Other forms of publicness??
• Does context matter? Are some states and policy sectors more social innovative than others?
• How to overcome innovation bias? Looking for ‘failed innovations’?• Did policy makers and society make use of the ‘austerity ‘ policy window to change
the ‘rules of the game’?