Coproduced game-changing in transformative social innovation: reconnecting the “broken city” of Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Social innovation is gaining attention for its potential for system transformations. It is often initiated by grassroots collectives, which can become successful through support from other actors and through certain game-changing events or developments. We highlight how transformative social innovation is a highly dispersed, coproduced process of changing social relations. This coproduction is unfolded through a case of interacting interventions in the socio-spatial structure of the city of Rio de Janeiro. Frequently referred to as a "broken city," the city suffers from various social challenges related to the socio-spatial cleavages between the welldeveloped and the marginalized areas, the favelas. Following a nested-case approach, we describe two policy measures and three social innovation initiatives intended to reconnect the broken city. We analyze their effects as well as their various interactions. The findings give reasons for considering the policy measures as "game-changers" that allow new courses of play. Still, the key observation about these intertwined socio-spatial interventions is that the broken city is undergoing more dispersed game-changing. Further observing how the reconnections constitute different kinds of changing mobility, we conclude with reflections on mobility-related game-changing.

Game-changers and transformative social innovation

“…(Avelino et al 2014b:6). Several authors follow this conceptualization of game-changers in their respective articles and subsequently focus on discussing empirical phenomena under study (Campos et al 2016, Prasad 2016, Cipolla et al 2017, Gordon et al 2017. Others propose alternative concepts to both clarify and broaden our conceptualization of game-changers.…”

“…Cipolla et al (2017) focus on Rio de Janeiro in Brazil as a "broken city," a city with broken socio-cultural and physical relations. They frame transformative social innovation as a process in which these socio-spatial relations are drastically changed, and in which the "broken city" undergoes reconnections.…”

“…Loorbach et al (2016) build on transition research as an interdisciplinary perspective on societal change and take perspectives from different disciplines (economic, ecological, technological, political, and cultural) to unpack the economic crisis. The paper by Cipolla et al (2017) considers urban mobility as spanning both physical as well as social-cultural aspects. Its argumentation is therefore by default interdisciplinary drawing upon the "mobilities turn" in social sciences (Urry 2007) and writings on territorial development through social innovation (Moulaert 2009).…”

“…Although the economic and financial crisis of the early 2000s triggered "a wave of social innovation" experiments and movements in Argentina and Brazil, the authors argue that it was primarily the subsequent rise of a populist government that strengthened public policies, which in turn were pivotal in inciting, supporting, and sheltering social innovation initiatives in the South American context. Similarly, Cipolla et al (2017) analyzes the interaction of public measures as game changers with social innovation initiatives. They flag the importance of metaphorical frames, especially the frame of a broken city.…”

“…The paper by Cipolla et al (2017) explores the case of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil as a city with "broken" socio-cultural and physical relations, to develop an understanding of both the gamechanging process as changing socio-spatial relations as a whole, and the distinct role of two policy interventions as game-changers therein. In doing so, the paper takes a relational approach and considers urban mobility as a physical and socio-cultural phenomena.…”