Developing Transformative Capacities for Social Innovations: A Case Study on the Social Innovation Initiative #UpdateDeutschland in the City of Hamburg
(2021) EKHS35 20211Department of Economic History
- Abstract (Swedish)
- Facing the urgency to tackle societal challenges, social innovations come to the fore as promising avenues due to their potential of invoking change of systems. Scholars refer to transformative social innovations in this respect: processes through which dominant institutions within a socio-material context are challenged, altered, or replaced by social innovations. Alas, turning the transformative potential of social innovation initiatives into impact remains rare as most do not undergo institutionalization processes or lack the transformative capacities to do so. Research on transformative capacities is nascent.
Hence, this study pursues to produce new knowledge and practical implications on intentions, practices, and tools for... (More) - Facing the urgency to tackle societal challenges, social innovations come to the fore as promising avenues due to their potential of invoking change of systems. Scholars refer to transformative social innovations in this respect: processes through which dominant institutions within a socio-material context are challenged, altered, or replaced by social innovations. Alas, turning the transformative potential of social innovation initiatives into impact remains rare as most do not undergo institutionalization processes or lack the transformative capacities to do so. Research on transformative capacities is nascent.
Hence, this study pursues to produce new knowledge and practical implications on intentions, practices, and tools for operationalizing the development of transformative capacities, focusing on institutional widening and deepening. For this purpose, this thesis conducts an explanatory holistic single case study, examining the activities within the incipient social innovation initiative “#UpdateDeutschland”, adopted in the city of Hamburg. The study mainly draws on primary data from expert interviews, direct and participatory observations.
The findings add new theoretical perspectives, first disclosing more differentiated insights on the intentions. It shows that tackling institutional depth is more pronounced than width. Likewise, the findings indicate distinct intentions regarding short-term results and long-term institutional changes. Further, the study identifies novel practices and tools, like network activation, community building, and informal learning processes. Moreover, it sheds light on the interplay and partially diverging focus areas and roles of network leaders and local social innovation and institutional actors. To empower social innovation initiatives in practice, stimulating the dialogue and alignment of such cross-scale, cross-sector interactions is recommended. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9055984
- author
- Matthaei, Franziska LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- EKHS35 20211
- year
- 2021
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Transformative Social Innovation, Social Innovation, Transformative Capacities
- language
- English
- id
- 9055984
- date added to LUP
- 2021-06-24 13:16:51
- date last changed
- 2021-06-24 13:16:51
@misc{9055984,
abstract = {{Facing the urgency to tackle societal challenges, social innovations come to the fore as promising avenues due to their potential of invoking change of systems. Scholars refer to transformative social innovations in this respect: processes through which dominant institutions within a socio-material context are challenged, altered, or replaced by social innovations. Alas, turning the transformative potential of social innovation initiatives into impact remains rare as most do not undergo institutionalization processes or lack the transformative capacities to do so. Research on transformative capacities is nascent.
Hence, this study pursues to produce new knowledge and practical implications on intentions, practices, and tools for operationalizing the development of transformative capacities, focusing on institutional widening and deepening. For this purpose, this thesis conducts an explanatory holistic single case study, examining the activities within the incipient social innovation initiative “#UpdateDeutschland”, adopted in the city of Hamburg. The study mainly draws on primary data from expert interviews, direct and participatory observations.
The findings add new theoretical perspectives, first disclosing more differentiated insights on the intentions. It shows that tackling institutional depth is more pronounced than width. Likewise, the findings indicate distinct intentions regarding short-term results and long-term institutional changes. Further, the study identifies novel practices and tools, like network activation, community building, and informal learning processes. Moreover, it sheds light on the interplay and partially diverging focus areas and roles of network leaders and local social innovation and institutional actors. To empower social innovation initiatives in practice, stimulating the dialogue and alignment of such cross-scale, cross-sector interactions is recommended.}},
author = {{Matthaei, Franziska}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Developing Transformative Capacities for Social Innovations: A Case Study on the Social Innovation Initiative #UpdateDeutschland in the City of Hamburg}},
year = {{2021}},
}