Social innovation futures: beyond policy panacea and conceptual ambiguity

Paul Benneworth, Effie Amanatidou, Monica Edwards Schachter and Magnus Gulbrandsen
Additional contact information
Paul Benneworth: Center for Higher Education Policy Studies, University of Twente, the Netherlands
Effie Amanatidou: Manchester Institute for Innovation Research, Manchester University, UK
Monica Edwards Schachter: CSIC-INGENIO, Valencia, Spain
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Mónica Edwards-Schachter ()

No 20150127, Working Papers on Innovation Studies from Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo

Abstract: Social innovation is once more an increasingly popular notion circulating as an apparent means to solve the Grand Challenges of the 21st Century. But this common-sense idea of social innovation is based on a quasi-concept, where processes of innovation are absent. To restore some academic rigour to this important concept, we argue more attention need be paid to these innovation processes in social innovation, and that there is value in using innovation concepts drawn from other areas of innovation studies (disruptive innovation, innovation systems, institutional innovation and socio-technical transitions) in highlighting how small-scale social experiments can ultimately lead to the solution of pressing societal problems. Through a subtle critique of the current policy conception of social innovation, it is possible for the field of Innovation Studies in general to help provide better insights into social innovation processes and ultimately to lead to better support frameworks and interventions for promoting solutions to these Grand Challenges.

Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2015-01
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sv.uio.no/tik/InnoWP/tik_working_paper_20150127.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tik:inowpp:20150127

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers on Innovation Studies from Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by H&kon Normann ().