"The Open Book of Social Innovation"

CREATIVITY & DEVELOPMENT

"The Open Book of Social Innovation"

BY NESTA AND YOUNG FOUNDATION

This book is about the many ways in which people are creating new and more effective answers to the biggest challenges of our times: how to cut our carbon footprint; how to keep people healthy; and how to end poverty. The Open Book of Social Innovation is part of the Social Innovator series, which looks at ways to design, develop and grow social innovation. It describes the methods and tools for innovation being used across the world and across different sectors – the public and private sectors, civil society and the household – in the overlapping fields of the social economy, social entrepreneurship and social enterprise. It draws on inputs from hundreds of organisations to document the many methods currently being used around the world.

The Open Book presents a varied, vibrant picture of social innovation in practice and demonstrates the vitality of this rapidly emerging economy. It is fantastically rich, and demonstrates the diversity of initiatives being led by entrepreneurs and campaigners, organisations and movements worldwide. Together with the other volumes in this Series, we hope that this work provides a stronger foundation for social innovation based on the different experiences and insights of its pioneers. Like the social ventures it describes, we want this work to grow and develop.

It is the result of a major collaboration between NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) and the Young Foundation – two organisations that are committed to the role that social innovation can play in addressing some of the most pressing issues of our time.

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This volume – part of a series of methods and issues in social innovation – describes the hundreds of methods and tools for innovation being used across the world, as a first step to developing a knowledge base.

KEY FINDINGS:

-Social innovation has moved centre stage over the last decade, as existing structures and policies have found it impossible to crack some of the most pressing issues of our times.

-Social innovation is distinct from other forms of innovation. As a result, it often requires its own processes, metrics, models and methods.

-The methods for social innovation should be a common property, and should evolve through shared learning. Chances of it being successful will increase if we can share our experiences and quickly reflect on what works and what doesn’t.

The materials we’ve gathered here are intended to support all those involved in social innovation: policymakers who can help to create the right conditions; foundations and philanthropists who can fund and support; social organisations trying to meet social needs more effectively; and social entrepreneurs and innovators themselves.

In other fields, methods for innovation are well understood. In medicine, science, and to a lesser degree in business, there are widely accepted ideas, tools and approaches. There are strong institutions and many people whose job requires them to be good at taking ideas from inception to impact. There is little comparable in the social field, despite the richness and vitality of social innovation. Most people trying to innovate are aware of only a fraction of the methods they could be using.

This book, and the series of which it is a part, attempt to fill this gap. In this volume, we map out the hundreds of methods for social innovation as a first step to developing a knowledge base. In the other volume of the Social Innovator series, we look at specific methods in greater depth, exploring ways of developing workable ideas and setting up a social venture in a way that ensures its financial sustainability; and that its structures of accountability, governance and ownership resonate with its social mission. 1 We have also launched an accompanying website, www.socialinnovator.info, to gather comments, case studies and new methods.

We’re also very conscious of what’s not in here. This is very much a first cut: there are many methods we haven’t covered; many parts of the world that aren’t well represented (including Africa and the Middle East); and many which we’ve only been able to describe in a very summary form.

The field we cover is broad. Social innovation doesn’t have fixed boundaries: it happens in all sectors, public, non-profit and private. Indeed, much of the most creative action is happening at the boundaries between sectors, in fields as diverse as fair trade, distance learning, hospices, urban farming, waste reduction and restorative justice.

Nevertheless, definitions have their place. Our interest is in innovations that are social both in their ends and in their means. Specifically, we define socialinnovations as new ideas (products, services and models) that simultaneously meet social needs and create new social relationships or collaborations. Inother words, they are innovations that are both good for society and enhancesociety’s capacity to act.

This book is a work in progress. It is very much a snapshot, designed to encourage further contributions. The methods for social innovation should be a common property, and should evolve through shared learning. Social innovations often struggle against the odds – all of our chances of success will increase if we can share our experiences and quickly reflect on what works and what doesn’t.

Authors: R. Murray, J. Caulier-Grice, G. Mulgan

Collaboration of NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) and the Young Foundation.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

All our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, unless it says otherwise. We hope you find it useful.
- See more at: http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/open-book-social-innovation#sthash.BuZ2Y88T.dpuf