Civil society organizations and social innovation. How and to what extent are they influencing social and political change?

Abstract

This study aims to understand how civil society organizations (CSOs) perform and influence public arenas. The focus of this paper is the transformative scope of social innovation initiatives promoted by CSOs in two public arenas in Brazil: the fight against electoral corruption and the protection of children and adolescents' rights. The research consisted of three stages: 1) controversy mapping to understand the configuration of these public arenas and compare the trajectories of the public problems studied; 2) observation of the "field of experience" of some CSOs that perform in these arenas; and 3) analysis of "political grammars" produced in public arenas, connecting them to the performance of the CSOs analysed. The results reveal how social innovation emerges, develops and is disseminated in the public arenas studied and highlights the similarities and differences between the two cases, discussing the practices and role of CSOs in these processes. As conclusions, the study indicates that social innovation initiatives promoted by CSOs are influenced by and have an effect on the "political culture" in the public arenas. Additionally, this work states that the regime of CSOs' engagement in the public sphere and their performance have consequences in terms of influence on social and political changes. In the cases studied, when CSOs go beyond the logic of coproduction of public services and engage in "public inquiry" processes, their capacity to inspire social transformation seems to be enhanced.

Social innovation in extreme institutional contexts: the case of Palestine

“…SI has also been said to be a remedy for the sustainability of NGOs (Andion et al, 2017). As traditional funding resources for NGOs continually decrease (Evers, 2020), and the competition for these resources increases (Reis & Clohesy, 1999), SI allows NGOs to be more innovative in their operations and processes (Jiao, 2011) and to improve the efficiency and the quality of their services to the community through, notably, professional business operations and marketing innovation (Battilana, Besharov, & Mitzinneck, 2017;Evers, 2020;Reis & Clohesy, 1999).…”

“…Around the globe, NGOs are crucial in the SI ecosystem because they have a shared focus on social needs orientation, which is essential for their activities (Bozic, 2021). In the theoretical and empirical literature, an important discussion has taken shape around the strong and direct link between SI and third sector actors such as NGOs (Andion et al, 2017;Beckmann, 2012;Gerometta et al, 2005;Goldenberg, 2004). When engaging in SIs, NGOs are particularly interested in co-creating public policies and improving public services in a context of growing threats to their funding and the shrinking of civic space (Galli et al, 2014;Seyfang and Longhurst, 2016;Andion et al, 2017).…”

“…In the theoretical and empirical literature, an important discussion has taken shape around the strong and direct link between SI and third sector actors such as NGOs (Andion et al, 2017;Beckmann, 2012;Gerometta et al, 2005;Goldenberg, 2004). When engaging in SIs, NGOs are particularly interested in co-creating public policies and improving public services in a context of growing threats to their funding and the shrinking of civic space (Galli et al, 2014;Seyfang and Longhurst, 2016;Andion et al, 2017). In Latin America for example, SI is primarily used in civil society organizations and communities (Domanski et al, 2015).…”

“…Around the globe, NGOs are crucial in the SI ecosystem because they have a shared focus on social needs orientation, which is essential for their activities (Bozic, 2021). In the theoretical and empirical literature, an important discussion has taken shape around the strong and direct link between SI and third sector actors such as NGOs (Andion et al. , 2017; Beckmann, 2012; Gerometta et al.…”

Persistent Exclusion in Mexico: Regulatory Governance as an Imperfect Project of Political Modernization

“…To understand the inclusion of diverse voices and perspectives in processes of regulatory decision making, one should consider the ontological and organizational complexity of the spheres that interrelate when we speak of regulatory governance. Civil society organizations, market‐based agents, and the political entities that comprise governments are heterogeneous, and may interact in ways that simultaneously include elements of cooperation on the one hand, and competition on the other (Andion, Moraes, and Gonsalves ; Arellano, Cabrero, and Del Castillo ; Dagnino, Olvera, and Panfichi ). The mere existence of participatory mechanisms does not automatically promote the democratization of regulatory decision‐making processes.…”