What is Social Innovation? Conceptual Malleability and Practical Implications

ABSTRACT

This article addresses a reality that, although not completely new, has drawn particular attention in the last years regarding its theorization and delimitation: the phenomenon (concept and practice) of “social innovation”. In the first part, the analysis focuses on the diversity of conceptions around the definition of social innovation, perceiving this phenomenon as a response to social conditions and problems, or as primarily conceived in the context of democratic governance and the desire for social transformation. Since we think it is possible and desirable to build bridges between models that, caring important assumptions, are incomplete in their formulations, in the second part of the article we propose a new strategic model for local social innovation, which is distinct from the two previous conceptions. The proposal is to interpret the concept of “social innovation”, when associated to a local development strategy, as composed of two fundamental axes: an instrumental axis (sectoral innovations + governance and externalities) and a political axis (learning communities + social mission and transforming vision). Within this proposal, the practical implications of adopting this model are also estimated.

Social innovation; local development; social mission; democracy; social transformation