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Social innovation, sustainable development and governance

Fredrik Björk

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• Sustainability - one of the most important global political concepts

• SDGs – will guide policy globally as well as nationally (and locally)

• ”Innovation” has become one of the most important strategies to both solve sustainability challenges and to promote economic growth

• How can institutional frameworks enable or facilitate innovations (for sustainability)?

• Shifting interest from innovators and entrepreneurs to mechanisms & systemic perspectives

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Challenges to sustainability

• Ecological sustainability• Social sustainability• Complex challenges – cannot be resolved by

single actors or sectors• Knowledge, resources and legitimacy• Wide range of stakeholders• Visible in the new SDGs

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”Governance” • Reaction to top-down ”government”• Encourage citizen & market forces engagement in the

development of society • From antagomism to collaboration/co-production• Network based • Partnerships (public-private/third sector-public)

New institutionalism (Theoretical perspectives)• Critique of rational myths – of organizations

(sense-making/meaning)• Legitimacy – how it is aquired and used

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Social innovation as a strategy for sustainability

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Ecosystem for social innovation• Supply & demand of social innovations• Intermediaries• System boundaries: Laws, norms, socio-economic

context etc.

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Boundaries & framework• Policies – ex. programs for social innovations by

government or other actors (foundations)• Legislation – ex. legal models for social

enterprises, tax breaks (B-Corp, CIC etc.); Legitimacy – historical, polical context/culture

• Sectorial agreements – ex. social enterprise marks• Norms & discourse• Intermediaries that affect the framework -

Knowledge centers – ex. Forum for social innovation Sweden; Young Foundation (UK)

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• FSIS: ”… a platform for academia, industry, government and non-profit organisations in Sweden who want to take part in the development of the fields of social innovation and social entrepreneurship.”

• ”We actively monitor what is happening in the field , both in Sweden and internationally, to ensure that the knowledge and experience developed, is disseminated and put to use.”

• Financed by Swedish Government, but located and organizaed as part of Malmö University [link]

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Developing the framework – Ex. Sweden

• Challenge – lack of trust and a social policy discourse sceptical of non-gov interventions

• Agreement between Swedish government (+ umbrella org for regional & local gov.) and civil society (mostly national orgs) [link]

• Creates common understanding on framework• Civil society/Public admin partnerships

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Triple helix innovation model

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”Penta helix” innovation model- Inspired by ’open innovation’- Co-production instead of competition

Citizens

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Developing institutional frameworks to promote innovation for sustainability – challenges and oppurtunities

• Differences in different contexts – but many similarities (”it won’t work here…”)

• Much rhetoric but few conrete measures• Changing mindsets! – org. cultures and institutional

legitimacy (more important than funding)• Building trust – through projects• ’Neutral’ institutions (knowledge hubs) like FSIS• International collaboration and inspiration