Why is Research in Social Innovation important for you?

My research is on how companies can change with the multitude of challenges they are presented. The goal is to identify the best way to create bottom-up change in these companies, public – private – social.

What is the biggest challenge for Social Innovation Research?

The biggest challenge for SIR is to avoid prescription. Social reality cannot be made top-down. Approaches such as transition-thinking ‘breathe’ control and makeability. We should not fall into that trap. But we can identify the challenges and stepping stones for better life.

What result can we expect from SI-DRIVE?

The SI-DRIVE should deliver the landscape of thinking about social innovation. You should not expect the final theory on social innovation, but the bright new venues to help make change in societies. SI-DRIVE should be the building block for all new venues of thinking.

Which book or article about Social Innovation should everybody read? Why? (Please don’t cite own publications or publications from your institution).

If you want to understand how the policy context has changed, and how policy can help promote social innovation, then the following book is a must-read:

Bourgon, Jocelyne (2011). A New Synthesis of Public Administration: Serving in the 21st Century. Canada: McGill-Queen’s University Press. p. 31. ISBN 978-1553393139.