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Social Innovation and Resilience
Frances Westley Waterloo Institute of Social Innovation and Resilience
In this presentation I will…
! Define key terms
! Look at resilience as a property linked to adaptive capacity (represented in the adaptive cycle)
! Look at resilience as something one wants to build indirectly through a pattern of invention for adaptation
! Look at resilience as something one wants to reduce indirectly or directly through a pattern of innovation for transformation
! Close with some questions for discussion
Some definitions
! Resilience: the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganize while undergoing change, so as to still retain essentially the same function, structure, identity, and feedbacks” (Walker et al. 2004; Folke et al. 2010).
! Resilience is about neither persistence nor change but about balancing and integrating both in an adaptive cycle
Routine Change (Persistence)
Growth r
Conservation K
Adaptation/Transformation Release Ω
Backloop
Reorganization α
Steve Carpenter,
--
Stored
Released Variety Sameness
The birth, growth, destruction and renewal of a forest
Weak CONNECTEDNESS Strong
Littl
e C
AP
ITA
L S
TOR
ED
Muc
h
Creative Destruction
1
The birth, growth, destruction and renewal of a forest
Weak CONNECTEDNESS Strong
Littl
e C
AP
ITA
L S
TOR
ED
Muc
h
Release or Creative Destruction
1
2
Renewal/Exploration
The birth, growth, destruction and renewal of a forest
Weak CONNECTEDNESS Strong
Exploitation
3
Littl
e C
AP
ITA
L S
TOR
ED
M
uch
The birth, growth, destruction and renewal of a forest
Weak CONNECTEDNESS Strong
Exploitation
3
Littl
e
CA
PIT
AL
STO
RE
D
M
uch
Conservation 4
Resilience and basins of attraction
In comes agency….
! Adaptability: the capacity of individuals within the system to maintain or manage its resilience through continuous invention and adjustments
! Transformability: the capacity to create untried beginnings from which to evolve a fundamentally new way of living when existing ecological, economic, and social conditions make the current system untenable (social innovation).
In comes innovation….
! Social Inventions: any product, process, design, program or initiative designed to assist vulnerable populations or those serving them to adapt more affectively to social or ecological circumstances
! Social Innovation: any product, process, design , program or initiative that profoundly changes the defining routines and laws, resource and authority flows, cultural beliefs and practices of a given social system. Social innovations transform intractable problem domains.
The adaptive cycle and invention/innovation?
An idea is born
The idea is developed
The idea is launched as a product, process or organization
An “established” innovation
Release or “Creative Destruction”
The psychosocial space called release or “creative destruction”
! Key pressures - sensemaking and reconfiguration of resources
! Associated changes -
! Breakdown of trust, networks and meanings ! Confusion, lack of clarity, lack of direction ! Pirating ideas and resources; introduction of novelty ! People: those who thrive on crisis, on new beginnings are
happy here – others may be depressed or in mourning
Reorganization or exploration
The psychosocial space called reorganization or “exploration”
! Key pressures: resource (funds, time, energy, attention, skill) availability - low connectivity - time pressure
! Associated changes: ! multiple “random walks”, experiments, initiatives which
lead to little in the way of measurable outcomes ! people who learn by doing are happy here, others may feel
increasingly anxious about waste of time or directionless ! reflection moving to experimentation, lots of false starts and
sometimes frustration and mounting anxiety about inputs/output ratios
exploitation
The psychosocial space called “exploitation”
! Key pressure- demand for delivery and productivity
! Associated changes- ! The dynamic of start-up - high excitement as the
initiative takes form. Communication is still highly personal, roles flexible, integration through mutual adjustment.
! With success and time, there is increasing need for organizing systems (communication, control, accounting), job definition and regulation.
! Team-builders and the action oriented come into their own. Conceptualizers may feel a little uncomfortable.
conservation
The Psycho-social space called “conservation”
! Key pressures - standardization of rules and procedures; demand for product
! Associated changes ! A time of measurable returns and performance ! Increased demands for reliability and productivity ! Increased reliance on systems for monitoring and
rewarding efficiency ! Good management prevails- visionaries step aside or
move on?
Use of the adaptive cycle in change making
! Where are you as an individual most comfortable? Least comfortable?
! Organizational assessment: Which phase is each of organization/program? What does the combined picture say about where is in the adaptive cycle?
! To what extent does the pattern of activities in any program area support the resilience of the broader system?
But what about the broader societal outcomes you are seeking: Adaptation or Transformation?
Crossing scales
Fig. 2
Resilience suggest the role of opportunity and of agency
2. Political
3 Cultural
1.
Economi
c
A. Institutional landscape
D. Scaling Up -Institutional Entrepreneurs
E. Scaling Out/Social entrepreneurs
National level
Can Plan be disseminated??
Institutional level
Changing the definition of citzenship
Organizational level
Success brings many demands
Individual level
Fatigue and questioning
Thinking like a movement: The PLAN Case
Resilience
1.Reducing the resilience of dominant regime
3. nibbling at the system to create a
window of opportunity
2. Building the
resilience of the
innovative alternative
Use of concepts of adaptation, transformation and cross scale interactions in strategic grant
making
! Is the goal of the program to build the resilience of the system through building adaptive capacity ?
• Or
! Is the goal of the program to reduce the resilience of the focal system through building capacity for social innovation?
What is your goal? To maintain the resilience of the current system by adaptation?
! Treat the “institutional” or environmental landscape as a given
! Focus on the problem regime level
! Look for opportunities to introduce new (inventive) programs , processes, initiatives that address the needs of the most vulnerable and builds the resilience of the whole
! Social entrepreneurs key as providers of these inventive approaches
! Re-engaging the voice of the vulnerable provides the diversity needed for invention
To transform the current systems
! Treat the “institutional” or environmental landscape as mutable and needing change
! Concentrate on connecting good ideas at the level of innovation niches to windows of opportunity at institutional scales and connecting the two.
! Social entrepreneurs and institutional entrepreneurs are vital
! Build the capacity for institutional entrepreneurship: system thinking, pattern recognition, networking, advocacy, brokering partnerships, selling ideas, building vertical social capital etc.