Enabling social innovation assemblages : strengthening public sector involvement

Abstract

Public sector interest in social innovation is growing rapidly around the world. The surge in activity has emerged, at least in part, in response to pressing social, environmental and economic issues and the increased recognition that many of these complex, inter-related 'wicked' and 'squishy' problems' are unresponsive to traditional policy 'levers'. However, it is only in recent years that substantial empirical research exploring public sector roles in enabling social innovation has emerged. This thesis contributes to this literature, taking a purposefully open and non-critical stance to allow for a broad exploration and in an attempt to think differently about possibilities. The epistemological framing of the study contributes to the Community Economies research tradition. I draw on several of its methods and tools, including using 'reading for difference' techniques to explore 'weak theory' propositions related to my three broad research questions. I develop and apply an experimental configuration of conceptual frameworks to uncover a multitude of 'little narratives' about public sector roles in enabling social innovation. The configuration includes the Diverse Economies Framework, which is used to inventory the agents and processes involved in what I identify through the research as 'social innovation assemblages'. To draw out key decision-making and negotiation points between the entities involved a second framework combines three perspectives: adaptive lifecycle concepts; domains of social change activity; and a contextual specificity approach to growing and diffusing social value. These frameworks provide language tools which contribute to strengthening the efforts of those interested in enabling social innovation assemblages through public sector policymaking. Given the practical orientation and exploratory nature of the study, a case study approach was chosen as the overarching method for the study. The empirical research was undertaken iteratively, in two stages. The first stage involved the development of 21 snapshot case studies of social innovation assemblages based in Europe, the UK, Canada, and the United States. These case studies were analysed using selected language tools to reveal the different roles that the public sector can play in enabling social innovation assemblages. The findings of this stage were used as inputs to the second stage, which comprised an engaged research activity with 21 participants from two 'user groups'. This engaged research activity was designed to build capacity around engaging with social innovation concepts, and to 'reality test' the language tools with participants. In the final thesis, 13 case studies that draw out each element of the two conceptual frameworks are presented. Through this analysis, and drawing on the input of the 'user groups', in the third stage, a specific domain of policymaking, namely social procurement, was selected for closer analysis. With reference to four in-depth case studies, I explore how social innovation assemblages are being enabled through public sector social procurement programs. In a key theoretical contribution, I combine the community economies framing of the study with the emerging literature on new public governance (NPG) frameworks. Through this unique combination of perspectives I show how tensions between participatory approaches to policymaking and the hierarchical decision-making structures and risk-averse cultures prevalent in the public sector can be navigated in ways that improve social relations whilst also improving accountability and transparency. Drawing together insights arising out of the research activities across the three stages, I identify nascent openings that point towards a new ethos in public sector policymaking. These openings include perspectives and language designed to 'push back' against prescriptive policymaking and offer a counter to 'fast policy' approaches to enabling and diffusing social innovation,. The resulting ethos positions public sector actors as more than 'just part of the problem'. Through the study I show that public sector actors can play dynamic and unique roles in decentring the prevailing discourse of intractable 'wicked problems' and performing a new kind of economy.

Date of Award	2017
Original language	English