Papers & Articles
Keywords to describe our research:
- Cross-disciplinary approach to study social innovation
Abstracts
Identify the purpose (motivation)
- Why did you decide to do this study or project?
- How did you conduct your research?
- Why is this research and your findings important?
- Why should someone read your entire essay?
- This section should include the importance of your work, the difficulty of the area, and the impact it might have if successful.
Explain the problem at hand (problem statement)
- What problem is your research trying to better understand or solve?
- What is the scope of your study - a general problem, or something specific?
- What is your main claim or argument?
Describe the method (approach)
Give your conclusion
- What are the implications of your work?
- Are your results general or very specific?
Outline --> Introduction - Body - Conclusion. Two paragraphs up to one page of text. ~ 300 words.
Paper 1 - Theoretical paper
- De huidige discussie gaat vooral om de verschillende definities van SI (wat is de correcte definitie). Wel aangeven waar in het debat / welke traditie we ons bevinden (maximalistische / minimalistisch en transformative / radical opzoeken).
- Minimalist - Maximalist: "A third type of radical innovation has been elaborated by Mangabeira Unger. He distinguishes between minimalist social innovations which give a human face to an otherwise unsupportable situation, and maximalist social innovations that aim at deep changes. ”
- Transformative - Radical
- GAP: hoe het proces in zijn gang gaat is onvoldoende scherp. Zeker wat aan toe te voegen: microniveau. Een scherpere blik op SI.
- Wat gebeurt er? Daar is niet veel naar gekeken.
- Combinatie met Human and Social Geography
- PLACE
ABSTRACT
As the position of the nation state has weakened with decentralisation as result, local socially innovative actions have come to the attention of a plethora of actors. As a means to an end and an end in itself, social innovation has increasingly gained the interest of academics, practitioners and policy makers alike. Much has been said about the definition of social innovation and also the outcomes have been discussed at large. The process dimension of socially innovative actions is less explored. Especially the micro level with the individual as a central point of focus has gained little to no attention in the current discussion.
Consequently, this study focusses on what is happening on a micro level during the process of social innovation. More specifically, this first paper enhances the discussion by introducing the concept of place. Decentralisation has enhanced the position of place in organising our society. As a location with a purpose is it perceived as something people take shared responsibility of. It presupposes a position of equivalence and pluralism. Place is where the development of new, or the transformation of, social relations between individuals takes place, being at the centre of socially innovative actions.
In order to explore the concept of place in the process of social innovation, this study takes on a cross-disciplinary approach and draws on the human and social geography literature. Instead of looking at shared norms and values and following a pre-given set, it focusses on altering the meaning of what it is to be social in the process. The results are relevant for researchers, practitioners and policy makers interested in the greater picture of social innovation.
Social innovation, as a means to an end and an end it itself, has increasingly gained the interest of academics, practisioners and policy makers alike. The discussion has largely focussed on the goals of social innovation as well as on finding common ground regarding the definition. Social innovation addresses local social needs and global societal challenges. It does so by using social means through the development of new, or the transformation of, social relations. These socially innovative actions are driven by different processes to enable groups to better satisfy their human needs and improve their living conditions.
Instead of joining the greater discussion on the content, outcomes and definition of social innovation, this study focusses on the process dimension. More specifically, it aims at elucidating the processes of social learning, individual and collective awareness rising, and socio-political mobilisation. At a microlevel it explores the connections between the different actors partaking in socially innovative actions.
Paper 2 - The process of social innovation
- lijn: mooi dat er wordt gekeken naar het niveau van organisatie; maar wat gebeurt er op het niveau van individuen?
- relatie met overheden: kunnen publieke instellingen ook innovatief zijn?
- inter-organisatorisch kijken. Niet: wie is de leider / kenmerken e.d. Wel: hoe zit het met de verhouding tussen al die mensen. Dat mist in literatuur!
- etnografisch meerwaarde toevoegen. Gebeurt nog niet in bestuurswetenschappen (public administration). Etnografie en innovatie.
- THE ENCOUNTER + NARRATIVE
ABSTRACT
The social innovation process, as a method and a practise, is dynamic and includes a plethora of different actors. It derives from bringing together these different actors that usually do not maintain relationships or only in direct conflict. The previous paper explored the role of place in connecting people. This paper aims at further elucidating the level of the individual in socially innovative actions. It investigates how the relationships between different actors are (re)organised by drawing on the concept of the encounter frequently used in the human and social geography literature. Careful consideration is asked for the types of encounters sought for and avoided by individuals.
Social innovation works towards social change through social actions and conscious awareness. Mutual learning plays an important role in this. The role of the narrative has often come to the forefront implicating its research significance through narrative analyses for interpreting human meaning and experience. Yet, the practical role of the narrative in mutual learning, mobilising action, and bringing about change has received little to no attention in the public administration discipline.
Against the background of decentralisation and the growing importance of investing in a public meeting culture, understanding the role of the encounter in socially innovative actions could support public administrators in facilitating alternative structures for societal change. Introducing the narrative, and hence ethnography in innovation, as a practise could provide policy makers an additional instrument for mutual learning and thus to gain a qualitative insight of the relationships between people and the topics of importance to enhance quality of life from a policy perspective.
- Moulaert: "Social innovation is not innovation in its ends only. SI hence works towards social change through the deepening and the broadening of participation, the establishment of more inclusive organisational procedures, the development of the capacity for collective action and the fundamental change of human attitudes and behaviour."
- In vergelijk met Zapf (2003, p.427) "...process of change in the social structure of a society in its constitutive institutions, cultural patterns, associated social actions and conscious awareness"
- "Social innovation derives from bringing together different actors that normally do not maintain relationships or only in direct conflict. Reorganise the connections between different actors - mutual learning (narratives?)" (Klein 2010). --> Link this with "The encounter", link to human/social geography
Overdenkingen plaats:
Greep natiestaten verzwakt en decentralisaties -> plaats belangrijker. Relationeel. Verknoping van relaties. Groepen delen weinig behalve de plaats waar ze samenkomen. Gedeelde verantwoordelijkheid. Plaats -> nieuwe gemeenschappelijkheid. Laagdrempelig. Vanuit nabijheid. Afhankelijkheid (krimp?) -> lotsverbondenheid. Samen verantwoordelijkheid nemen voor een plaats veronderstelt een positie van gelijkwaardigheid.
Overheid: gelijke kansen. Democratische plicht om om te investeren in een publiek ontmoetingsstructuur. Ook: Potentieel van plaat-gebaseerde vormen van care. Burgerschap als praktijk. Wat mensen concreet doen. Toegenomen belang van plaats in het organiseren van ons samenleven.
Paper 3 - Ethics of care: Means to an end or end in itself?
- link innovatie: rol van ethics in gemeenschap vormen. Is dat:
- zorgdragen voor ipv innovatief menstype te zijn (als individu) of is de ethics of care die in de gemeenschap ontstaat de sociale innovatie?
- CARE + THE COMMONS
ABSTRACT
The previous two papers explored the role of place and encounter in the social innovation process. Social dynamics for the development of new or existing relationships between individuals is at the core of social innovation. The development of the capacity of collective action is what aimed for. Still, these social means are often solely perceived as a side effect of the social innovation process.
The results of this research are relevant for.......
- But how can we make visible the human relations that underlie care? conception of care - as part of the commons. Care: connections that are made on the basis of our natural predisposition to love, empathise, reciprocate and share meanings. The commons: where community organizes and provides its own services: Instead asking us to understand commons as an informal social activity from the bottom up known as ‘commoning’. This is where the real ideas for change are conceived and grow.
- The Commons – "a vision of empowered citizens taking charge of their lives and their endangered resources"(Bollier & Helfrich 2012) – is a field of possibilities and new social practices, based on sharing, cooperation, reciprocity and socio-cultural change. These practices are providing pioneering solutions to the challenge of how to reproduce our livelihoods beyond market and state.
Placing it at the centre of socially innovative actions, this paper draws of the concepts of care and the commons
Instead of concentrating on the ‘innovative individual’, this study looks at different forms of taking care between individuals. The question is then: is ethics of care a necessity in the social innovation process or is it a social innovation in itself.
Hence, this paper focusses in particular on how individuals take care of each other.
The aim of this study is to recognise care and different responsibilities formed in material, technological, symbolic and imagined space. ....can be extended as a form of interest in the commons.
The results of this research are relevant for public administrators to better understand the role of ethics in micro practises. It will enhance the understanding of how the choices of individuals effects societal change.
SI is not only innovation that is directed at social goals but also uses social means. Social means refer to the development of new or transformation of social relations.
Place making: look at the potential of place-based forms of solidarity and care. Recent thinking about citizenship. Look at what people actually do. Who is active in the public space? Increased importance of place in our society. Making place becomes an important project.
Role of ethics in micro practices
Concept of ‘care’ sometimes used as an alternative to the concept of solidarity
Specific focus on ethics: how do people take care of each other; ethics of care
Ethics of care: looks at ethics which pays more attention to emotional and private role of ethical judgments.
Look at the actual practices in everyday life settings and grass-roots movements
Care for each other plays everywhere; we look at how it works in neighbourhoods and in the family.
Focus on the individual experiences.
Why: better understanding of how all those individual choices work through the way society changes.
Again: role encounter and place: We need to think more carefully about which types of encounters are sought, and by whom, and which are avoided, and by whom.
The emphasis is placed not just on immediate contact experiences, but also on how peoples accrued histories of social experience and material circumstances may also contribute to their feelings about different sorts of encounters. In particular, how do 'real' and 'imagined' feelings and practices of care inhibit or open up the possibilities that a bridge being made between people's attitudes to particular individuals and to wider social groups?
aim: to recognize cares and different responsibilities formed in material, technological, symbolic and imagined space. ....can be extended as a form of interest in the... (commons?
(To scan the landscape for evidence and proposals for new ways of gathering diversity into a functioning ‘commons’.
Commons: seen as:)
Argument link with social innovation: the role of ethics in community building:
Not a focus on the innovative individual but:
are the different ways to care for each other that arise in the community a social innovation in itself?
Paper 4 - Politics of care
- Hoe kun je politici hier in meenemen; houding cultiveren. Niet in bestuurlijke zin maar houding als persoon.
- antropologie van beleidsmakers.
ABSTRACT
The involvement of civil society to bring about social change while also renovating democracy has gained importance in public administration. Transparency, legitimacy and democracy need to be guaranteed with specific governance technologies. This also depends on a cultural change in public administration, i.e. (focus: decision makers’ and civil servants’ ) capacity in learning to develop spaces for common decisions, integrate different sources of power and aims and elaborate new practices of working together.
Instead of focussing at the code or the principles, the norms and the values, this paper focusses at the cultivation of the ethical person, the self-formation as an ethical subject involving practices of forming the ethical political subject. Focus on the attitude of a divers set of policy makers. Not in an administrative sense.
While the previous papers focussed especially on the individual in the social innovation process, this paper concentrates on political responsibility and political practice. What might a politics of care be? How might local politics participate in that ethics of care and building new communities and collaboration? Which attitudes and practices could make possible ethically sensitive, negotiated settlements between different groups and individuals in the collaboration process and the construction of communities?
The aim is to explore the affective dimension of political subjects and opportunities.
Practical ethics
The results of this research are relevant for.......
Antropologie of policy makers: a more informal and affective perspective:
explore some of the ways and means in which antropologie might begin to show more attitude and greater determination in mobilizing action and leading change in an organizational setting
will enable us to identify more precisely the problems associated with…..as the are constructed in the proces of social innovation. We focus on the process dimension of SI as this dimension is most relevant to the governance challenges….
Grassroots movements places where they exercise their responsibility. A close look into micro political opportunities.
definition: Social innovation is not innovation in its ends only. SI hence works towards social change through the deepening and the broadening of participation, the establishment of more inclusive organizational procedures, the development of the capacity for collective action and the fundamental change of human attitudes and behavior.
- (Chambon, David and Devevey 1982). Chambon et al. argue that social innovation practices are different from existing practices because they respond to a society which is blocked by ‘institutions’. Social innovation rejects ‘long circuits’ and aims to shorten way between appearance of need and its satisfaction by bypassing existing (welfare) state institutions.
Practical ethics
Which attitudes and practices could make possible ethically sensitive, negotiated settlements between different groups and individuals in the collaboration process and the construction of communities?
Local forms of social innovation tend to highlight the need for necognition and reprensentation and could hence help to improve conventional welfare state politics.
Paper 5 - What happens when you become the best practise
- Dit bekijken met een externe blik en hoe het het project en de mensen en de plaats heeft veranderd
- de rol van plaats
- vanuit het perspectief van best practice / reflectie over de eigen positie
- sociale mobiliteit / creëert hiërarchie / hoe valt dat in de groep
ABSTRACT
Local forms of social innovation tend to highlight the need for recognition and representation. Hence, they could help to improve conventional welfare state politics.
The aim of this paper is to gain a better understanding of the balance among social, managerial and political aims, devoting special attention to responsibility and accountability, both within the commons and public institutions as well as their partnerships with different kind of actors.
Unit of analysis are localised social innovations (against the restructuring of the well-fare state) and include its spatial form and institutional embedding. Best practice: Ulrum (+ dZH?)
.... The results of this research are relevant for.......
Unit of analysis: localized social innovations (against the restructuring of the well-fare state)
and include its spatial form and institutional embedding
best pracice: Ulrum (+ dZH?)
we approach localized forms of SI against the backdrop of the restructering of the wellfare state + new social challenges (participation and joint decision making?)
focus: governance challenges + dilemma’s
vraag naar participatie en inspraak: nieuwe uitdagingen. Ulrum geeft door opzet en veelheid aan partners mogelijkheden. Not focus on the intervention or action in isolation but include its spatial form and institutional embedding. That is its multi scaler and networked nature as a complex assemblage of actors, institutions and instruments, as an intrinsic part of the SI process.
the bottum up perspective (crucial for mobilizing resources (how and which ones) and networks but the connection with top down practices is of equal importance.
proces: risks
best practice -> exposure -> effects?
Internal relations (+ encounter with the stranger)
Leaving space to citizens’ and communities’ self-organisation -> risks for:
the local organisation (focus local promoters): what happens with internal relations, living up to expectations, pressure (subsidies), timeframes and publicity
public institutions (focus key persons in strategic public institutions): their biggest challenge is to create favourable conditions + risks (inequality, keeping control over exclusionary processes, avoiding risks of delegation and passive subsidiary).
Influenced by political pressures which are again influenced by socio-economic and socio-demographic challenges like legitimacy and inclusiveness. Look into the posibilities and the boundaries of citizenship.
Actors putting forward SI initiatives should learn to actively act (on different scales)
the question is: how is it possible to create a good balance between public care and responsibility.
Place making: look at the potential of place-based forms of solidarity and care. Recent thinking about citizenship. Look at what people actually do. Who is active in the public space? Increased importance of place in our society. Making place becomes an important project.
functions as a microprocess that makes macropolitical settlement possible
a better uderstanding of the balance among social, manegerial and political aims, devoting a special attention to responsability and accountability, both within the grass roots movement and public institutions as well as their partnerships with different kind of actors. (?)
Closer look into practice of social innovation: to identify more precisely the specific problems associated; a closer look at the collaboration, interdependence, the awareness of it and the actual creation of active trust and reflexive engagement.
Analyse how these tensions play out in actual practices as they are constructed in practice of social innovation.
Also contextual conditions that facilitate or hinder si.
.... The results of this research are relevant for.......
Paper 6 - Auto-Ethnography
- Professional als object van solidariteit.
- buffer zijn / risico absorberen
- pedagogie als discipline?
ABSTRACT
Another way of making personal experiences relevant for ....
Auto-etnografie:
Kracht auto-etnografie: inzicht verschaffen in de doorwerking van gebeurtenissen, maatregelen, wetgeving, normen en waarden en concrete levens maar ook inzicht in de totstandkoming van onderzoeksresultaten en conclusies.
Analytische auto-etnografie als methode?
encounter with 'the stranger'
role of intermediary
Role facilitator / intermediary in SI needs: managing and creating innovative and productive contexts to value each others stenghts and avoid each other weaknesses.
Experiment with new theories, techniques, methods of research and, in this case: representation.
Massey: "Unavoidably we had to think about the politics and ethics of out academic 'locality'. And here choice looms as a daily challenge: a choice of the theorist, not to try to 'get is right' but to persue inventiveness"
Opvallend is de centrale ondersteunende rol van 'professionals' en 'publieke ontmoetingsstructuur'. De positie van professionals (in 4 politics hier anders bedoeld). Rol van reflectie en machtsverhoudingen (bestendigen of prioriteiten van buiten opleggen). Het is echter belangrijk om deze rol zichtbaar te maken (alleen al omdat het mythes over het spontane karakter van zorg voor elkaar en directe solidariteit onderuit haalt). De plaatsgebonden vormen van directe vormen van solidariteit (care) zijn via de financiering van professionals en ontmoetingsstructuur sterk verweven met de indirecte solidariteit (care) van de verzorgingsstaat. In Ulrum ook: Ook andere sporen van overheidssfinanciering: het gebruik maken van publiek gefinancierde onderzoeksinstellingen. Sterk verweven in de praktijk (indirect en direct).
Zie ook Kok: "de overheid was nog nooit zo betrokken"
Ethnografie als methode: Ulrum: aan den lijve kunnen ondervinden hoe ‘het’ er aan toe gaat + hoe (het systeem) werkt. Zie ook best-practice zijn. Meer inzicht verkregen in de interactie tussen de verschillende actoren / vertegenwoordigers van….
Jeff Ferrell zet zich met zijn auto-etnografische benadering af tegen de positivistische onderzoeksbenadering die geen oog heeft voor de ‘situated logic and emotion which define criminal experience’ (1998: 20). Hij stelt dat deze benadering meer recht doet aan de dagelijkse praktijk van participerende observatie. Hij is dan ook een voorstander van wat hij ‘true confessions’ noemt: ‘accounts of field research that in fact undermine absolutist notions of scholarly truth by incorporating situationally truthfully representations of field researchers’ lived and limiting experiences’.
Ferrells auto-etnografische benadering, die in dienst staat van het beschrijven van de sociale wereld van …, komt tot uiting in drie aspecten: (a) representatie, (b) analyse en (c) de rol van de onderzoeker in de tekst.
De verdiensten van de auto-etnografie (als vanzelfsprekend onderdeel van de etnografie) hebben betrekking op:
1. het integreren van de persoonlijke ervaringen van onderzoekers in teksten om zo te komen tot een rijkere beschrijving van de sociale werelden die zij onderzoeken;
2. het expliciteren van de rol van de onderzoeker in publicaties; en
3. het ontwikkelen van nieuwe (meer aansprekende) vormen van representatie.
Ferrell geeft aan dat auto-etnografische inzichten vooral ontwikkeld kunnen worden als onderzoekers zelf zo veel als mogelijk deelnemen aan de sociale wereld die zij bestuderen. Ferrell gaat hierin veel verder dan de meeste onderzoekers: ‘I will try not to hide behind the cloak of a researcher or scholar, but rather participate as fully as possible in these risky social processes’ (Ferrell, 1998: 21). In feite komt zijn doel tijdens veldwerk neer op going native (drie jaar lang elke maand een week daar gewoond)
alle ruimte geven aan de day-to-day reality van de … en richt zich hierbij op de ‘situational meanings and emotions – its moments of pleasure and pain, its emergent logics and excitement’ (Ferrell, 1998: 24-25). Doel ligt vooral in het zo levensecht mogelijk beschrijven van de sociale wereld van / process van SI…. Wel reflecteren op de eerder genoemde concepten. Bijvoorbeeld:
hoe de bewoners met hun handelingen betekenis kunnen geven aan hun dorp.
ook: nadere analyse van: interacties tussen vreemden in de openbare ruimte (Müller, 2011).
Ferrell duidelijk dat auto-etnografie vooral als methode kan werken wanneer er sprake is van een proces van going native, waarin onderzoekers worden geconfronteerd met nieuwe ervaringen die afwijken van wat zij gewend zijn. Juist door de eigen emotionele reactie op een nieuwe sociale situatie serieus te nemen en daarover na te denken kan inzicht worden verkregen in cruciale aspecten van de te onderzoeken sociale wereld.
In het spanningsveld van distantie en betrokkenheid vervreemding en toe-eigening worden de vanzelfsprekendheden (van de onderzoeker en de informanten) in denken, voelen en doen ontdekt en inzichtelijk gemaakt.
The results of this research are relevant for.......
