Social Innovation, Power and Transformation: A Disquieting Conversation

In preparation for the IAU Global Meeting of Associations 6, this issue - IAU Horizons, 21, 1 - offers reports on IAU priority areas, new projects and initiatives, especially LGEU, and upcoming events and conferences.
By Budd L Hall. Social Innovation, Power and Transformation: A Disquieting Conversation
The fog bank of social innovation has been moving inalterably from the oceans of social thought towards the shores of community organisations, local governments, and now to institutions of higher education. My concern is that both the discourse and the practice of social innovation seem to have found a breeze that carries them into our organisational lives in a largely unexamined and uncritical manner. I mean it all sounds so wonderful. The Stanford Center for Social Innovation defines social innovation as “a novel solution to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than present solutions and for which the value created accrues primarily to society as a whole rather than private individuals.” (csi.gsb.stanford.edu). Download IAU Horizons, 21, 1.