Narratives of change: How social innovation initiatives construct societal transformation

Wittmayer, Julia; Backhaus, Jürgen G.; Avelino, Flor; Pel, Bonno; Strasser, Tim; Kunze, Iris; Zuijderwijk, Linda

doi:10.1016/j.futures.2019.06.005

Cited by 156 publications

(111 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Recent studies in ecovillage-style communities like Cloughjordan in Ireland [20], Findhorn in Scotland [22], Sieben Linden in Germany [23], and Piracaia and Porongaba in Brazil [24], among others, show that this form is relatively widespread and successful in reducing the ecological footprints of members when compared to their compatriots. They also show that ecovillages have developed "narratives of change" in service to countering the neoliberal narrative that positive change must come through social innovation [25]. The environmental success of the case study contained in this paper is below, in the Methods section.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 89%

Ecovillagers’ Assessment of Sustainability: Differing Perceptions of Technology as a Differing Account of Modernism

Rubin

2019

Sustainability

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There is great debate over how to measure progress towards ecological sustainability, and a number of approaches deployed by various groups to try and achieve it. One of these is the “ecovillage,” a form of communal living—the primary purpose of which is to enable a reduction in consumption through the collectivization of resources. This paper presents a case study of an ecovillage named Dancing Rabbit, which stands as an example counter to mainstream discourses on progress through the relatively successful approach to ecological sustainability. In the dwellings they have built, their resource consumption patterns, and the diverse attitudes towards technology use that they express, the ecovillagers in this study demonstrate narratives of progress which center an ecological motive over one of profitable innovation. Rather than rely on modernist assumptions of engineering our way to sustainable living through advanced technology or embrace primitivist notions of rejecting it all together, the case study of Dancing Rabbit presents an approach functioning as an alternative to that prevailing dichotomy.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 89%

Ecovillagers’ Assessment of Sustainability: Differing Perceptions of Technology as a Differing Account of Modernism

Rubin

2019

Sustainability

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“…SI initiatives, and especially the new social relations that they promote, can also be empowered through wider processes of discursive resonance (Luhmann 1989). Beyond the many individuals, local initiatives and transnational networks who seek to develop persuasive discourses and narratives of change (Wittmayer et al 2019), this discursive resonance is a collective process that involves the whole communicative sphere through which socially innovative concepts gain political and scientific authority (Voß 2014). This includes the communication infrastructures through which SI concepts are mediated and spread Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research (Cf.…”

Section: Empowering Network Constellations: Three Dimensionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…SI initiatives, and especially the new social relations that they promote, can also be empowered through wider processes of discursive resonance. Beyond the many individuals, local initiatives and transnational networks who seek to develop persuasive discourses and narratives of change (Wittmayer et al 2019), this discursive resonance comprises the whole communicative sphere around socially innovative concepts. It involves four empowerment processes, namely the circulation of (1) organizational models; (2) practices; (3) framings and (4) data/evidence.…”

Section: Empowering Network Constellations (Iii): Discursive Resonancementioning

confidence: 99%

Unpacking the social innovation ecosystem: an empirically grounded typology of empowering network constellations

Pel

Wittmayer

Dorland

et al. 2019

Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research

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Social innovation is on the rise as a mode of governance through which to address societal challenges. Seeking to empower SI initiatives, researchers and policy makers are concerned with the development of supportive "ecosystems". This concept usefully calls attention to the distributed nature of SI agency, but many questions remain on the kinds of network constellations involved. This contribution unpacks the "SI ecosystems" concept, specifying how the empowerment afforded through SI networks rests on (1) local embedding, (2) transnational connectivity and (3) discursive resonance. Charting the variety of network constellations as studied in an international comparison of 20 transnational SI networks, a typology of SI ecosystems is constructed. Distinguishing five SI ecosystem ideal-types ranging from loosely integrated and locally focused co-creation hubs to globally connected and widely resonating political movements, the typology informs a differentiated approach to their understanding and development.

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“…This narrative not only provides a story-line that is recognizable to all its members, but also bonds people emotionally (Jasper, 1998;Pesch, Correljé, Cuppen, & Taebi, 2017). Closely aligned with this interpretation of social movements is the way in which they forward 'narratives of changes' Wittmayer et al, 2015), which can be seen as the discourses and story-lines used to argue for societal change, but also to provide legitimization and guidance to this process of change.…”

Section: Social Movementsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Local sustainability initiatives: innovation and civic engagement in societal experiments

Pesch

Spekkink

Quist

2018

European Planning Studies

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Local sustainability initiatives are studied from two scholarly perspectives: the perspective of sociotechnical innovation, which relates to the capacity of bottom-up initiatives to contribute to the development of sociotechnical alternatives; and the perspective of civic engagement which relates to the capacity of citizens to organize themselves in order to pursue community goals. This paper argues that taking both these perspectives into account overcomes the problem of being too instrumental or the problem of neglecting the role of technology and innovation in local initiatives. The perspective of sociotechnical innovation presents different types of innovation pursued by local initiatives: the creation of new technology, the application of existing technology and the development of social innovation. Furthermore, innovations might diffuse over wider society by: replication, scaling up, and translation. In turn, civic engagement may take the shape of: the strengthening of social capital, the formation of social movements, and the substitution of functions and services. The insights from literature are illustrated and qualified by applying them in the context of concrete local initiatives. Finally, local initiatives will be portrayed as social contexts that are successful in gathering actors with different motivations and world views and that may contribute to the democratization of innovation. ARTICLE HISTORY

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Narratives of change: How social innovation initiatives construct societal transformation

Cited by 156 publications

References 39 publications

Ecovillagers’ Assessment of Sustainability: Differing Perceptions of Technology as a Differing Account of Modernism

Ecovillagers’ Assessment of Sustainability: Differing Perceptions of Technology as a Differing Account of Modernism

Unpacking the social innovation ecosystem: an empirically grounded typology of empowering network constellations

Local sustainability initiatives: innovation and civic engagement in societal experiments

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