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Social innovation within sustainable development discourse
The concept of social innovation is directly connected with a concept of sustainable
development. The dominant view of sustainable development is that economic and social
development and environmental conservation/protection are mutually compatible
objectives. Therefore, social innovation is uniquely positioned within this broader concept of
sustainable development. Indeed, it could be argued that social innovation could be an
advanced and innovative tool for promoting sustainable development goals and strategic
priorities.
Indeed, social innovation refers to a novel solution to a social problem that is more
effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than existing solutions and for which the value
created accrues primarily to society as a whole rather than private individual (Phills et al.,
2008.) This definition illustrates the parallelism between sustainable development and
social innovation since both concepts and the practices arising from these concepts share
the same goals. Social innovation acts as a drive and a force within sustainable development
discourse by providing the qualities of “newness” and “innovation” towards their joint
narrative. Furthermore, it extends its narrative towards further advancements and
developments.
Indeed, social innovations have high capacity to serve sustainable development goals as
social innovations entail the production of new ideas and new structures and a process of
re-contextualisation within socially (re)constructed norms of the public good, justice and
equity (Nicholls and Murdock, 2008). Indeed, some authors state that social innovation
alignes itself with the sustainability-inspired rhetoric of justice, progress and tractability
(Mulgan, 2009) in Table 1.
Table 1. Rhetorics of social innovation (adapted from Mulgan, 2009).
Type of rhetorics
Rhetorics of justice
Rhetorics of progress
Rhetorics of
tractability
Argument
the arguments for righting wrongs and meeting needs, whether
these are for pensions or for affordable housing, which draw on
fundamental moral senses of fairness.
the idea that change is cumulative and dynamic: new reforms are
needed to reinforce old ones, or to prevent backsliding – for
example new rights to maternity leave are essential to make a
reality of past laws outlawing gender discrimination
the claims that social action works, and that whether the problem
is unemployment or climate change, the right mix of actions can
solve it.
Where could we develop social innovations? What approaches should we take to socially
innovate? Indeed, social innovation has an extensive area of possibilities and opportunities,
large opened by the sustainable discourse itself. Indeed, every aspect of sustainable
development has a potential for sustainable innovation. To illustrate this argument, let’s
look at the changes required for advancing sustainable development (Table 2), and then
discuss this framework within social innovation context.
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