Why is Research in Social Innovation important for you?

Changes in society have always been started by people. Social innovation stresses a shift from institutional change (like economical in technological innovation) to bottom up activities set in motion by motivated people. The importance about social innovation for me is that the make-ability of our societies indeed comes more into the hands of us as individuals. Not only is this relevant in terms of social change (social cohesion, social inequality), but also with regard to political and economic structures being changed (i.e. people’s voice, well-being and welfare).

What is the biggest challenge for Social Innovation Research?

From a research perspective the challenge is to gather solid, rigorous evidence how social innovation works. I say this because it is not easy to get a full picture of bottom up activities, until such activities have grown into something more substantial. By hindsight it is always obvious whether an innovation was really an innovation. However, we know from innovation studies (in technology, management and business) that 70% ‘fails’. And these studies focus on institutional activities (R&D, academia, etc.) which are often top down initiatives as well. Not overlooking the sparkles in the dark is an important part of our mission! Like it is hard to say where a river exactly begins, so is innovation.

What result can we expect from SI-DRIVE?

We should be modest and ambitious at the same time. Modest because many social innovations may ‘fail’ like non-social innovations tend to do. So, patience, creativity and stamina then are asked for. Ambitious because we face major social issues today (environmental and human). SI-DRIVE has simply no other option than put all effort possible in laying bare some important working mechanisms how social and societal innovation can be taken up, put forward and scaled up. And yet, we should not expect miracles.

Which book or article about Social Innovation should everybody read?

To ‘deviate from the norm’ (which according to innovative avant-garde musician Frank Zappa is the cornerstone for renewal) I would like to suggest not a read on social innovation, but on innovation from the world of business and management. Andy Van de Ven et al’s ‘Innovation Journey’ (1999) addresses most logical and irrational aspects of innovation. But even a less expected work to recommend would be ‘Managing the unexpected’ (2007) from Karl Weick and Kathleen Sutcliffe, as it stresses the need for a great sense of urgency for (social) change, otherwise innovation will not come about, to the detriment of the resilience of our societies.