What is Social Innovation? Ummm.....

Submitted by Eli Malinsky on March 21, 2010 - 12:26pm

I am leading a workshop at the Young Social Enterpreneurs of Canada Re:Vision 2010 conference next week here in Toronto. The title is Social Innovation: What the Hell are We Talking About? My hope is to have a fairly informal discussion with participants about the competing definitions of SI, the value/necessity of having definitions, and the ongoing battle over which practical examples qualify as social innovations.

There are a few predominant definitions of social innovations (Young Foundation, Wikipedia among others), and our own definition was composed a few years ago. The thing is that most of them break-down when subject to rigorous analysis. I have yet to read a convincing definition or analysis that really justifies the term or sets reasonable parameters on its use. I suspect that most new disciplines start off this way...under heavy debate and uncertainty, gradually coalescing into definition, borders and canons. But I can't help but feel that SI is a little bit different. That in some respects, it really isn't like most other fields in the social sciences.

That said, I am perfectly comfortable with this uncertainty. I recognize the value of having definition, but it doesn't really affect the work that we do here at the Centre. The real challenge is in communicating to others - most especially governments - the value of the work we do.

In another fine effort to improve understanding of SI, here's a neat little video that from the Gulbenkian Institute and the Social Innovation Exchange intended to introduce social innovation as part of their Fix the Future program.