Digital social innovation

Müge Özman Gossart ()
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Müge Özman Gossart: IMT-BS - MMS - Département Management, Marketing et Stratégie - TEM - Télécom Ecole de Management - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris] - IMT-BS - Institut Mines-Télécom Business School - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris], LITEM - Laboratoire en Innovation, Technologies, Economie et Management (EA 7363) - UEVE - Université d'Évry-Val-d'Essonne - IMT-BS - Institut Mines-Télécom Business School - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris]

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Abstract: The rapid rise of digital platforms that bring innovative solutions to social and environmental problems reflect changes in the ways that civic engagement is exercised in many parts of the world. These digital social innovations span domains like civic crowdfunding, governance and political participation, neighbourhood information systems, crowd science, geographic information systems, and recycling platforms among others. DSIs are diverse in terms of their sectors, beneficiary populations, the nature of innovators, and organisational forms. During the recent years, although DSI have attracted public attention in Europe and specialised organisations and supportive institutions have emerged, the field remains under investigated by academic research. This prevents a systematic analysis of the extent to which DSIs effectively contribute to more sustainable societies. In this paper we discuss various definitions of DSI, describe this ecosystem in Europe, present illustrative examples, and distinguish between four types with respect to their scale of operations (local versus global) and the nature of networks between users they help develop (dense clusters based on shared interests, versus loose and distributed networks). By drawing upon different cases in each type, we present a theoretical lens to analyse their implications, which is based on viewing markets as calculative collective devices (Callon and Muniesa, 2005). In light of this perspective, we discuss the issues at stake in their algorithms that might counteract their social goals, alternative modes of scaling, and the conditions to which each type is potentially better suited in contributing to sustainability. We also discuss implications for future policy and management.

Date: 2018-12-07
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Published in SPRU Friday seminars : Science and Technology Research Unit, Dec 2018, Brighton, United Kingdom

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02337873

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