Howaldt/Wien September 2011 Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund Central Scientific Institute 1 Shaping Social Innovation by Social Research Challenge Social Innovation Parallel Session 2.5: Social sciences and social innovation 20 th September 2011 Prof. Dr. Jürgen Howaldt Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund – TU Dortmund

Howaldt/Wien September 2011 Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund Central Scientific Institute 2 My Topics I want to  outline the main characteristics of a sociologically enlightened new paradigm of innovation  touch upon the increasing relevance of social innovation as important part of the new innovation paradigm  provide a definition of social innovation  draft the possible new role of social sciences

Howaldt/Wien September 2011 Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund Central Scientific Institute 3 Basic assumption Transition from an industrial to a knowledge and services- based society corresponds to a paradigm shift of the innovation system. This paradigm shift also implies an increasing importance of social innovation as compared to technological innovation.

Howaldt/Wien September 2011 Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund Central Scientific Institute 4 Main characteristics  Co-ordination and mediation between different groups of stakeholders involved in innovation activities  Interdisciplinarity, heterogeneity and reflectivity of the processes of creation  Emphasis on historical, cultural and organizational preconditions  Increased involvement of users/citizens in processes of “co-development”

Howaldt/Wien September 2011 Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund Central Scientific Institute 5 Social Innovation moves from the margins to the mainstream At the start of 2009 President Obama announced the establishment of a new “Office for Social Innovation at the White House“ and allocated USD 50million to a fund for social innovation. The Fund will focus on priority policy areas, including education, health care, and economic opportunity.

Howaldt/Wien September 2011 Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund Central Scientific Institute 6 Social Innovation  a new combination or new configuration of social practices  in certain areas of action or social contexts  prompted by certain actors or constellations of actors  in an intentional targeted manner with the goal of better satisfying or answering needs and problems than is possible on the basis of established practices  socially accepted and diffused widely throughout society or in certain societal sub-areas  finally institutionalized as a new social practice

Howaldt/Wien September 2011 Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund Central Scientific Institute 7 In this light innovation can be understood “as a process of collective creation, in the course of which the members of a particular total population learn, i.e. invent and establish, new ways of playing the social game of collaboration and conflict, in a word a new social practice, and in the course of which they acquire the necessary … abilities to do this.” (Crozier/Friedberg 1993)

Howaldt/Wien September 2011 Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund Central Scientific Institute 8 Areas of social innovation civil society:the increase in the significance of cohabitation or the environmental movement state action: the introduction of social security and national insurance business world: the advent of assembly line work, knowledge management and fast food chains (cf. Gillwald 2000)

Howaldt/Wien September 2011 Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund Central Scientific Institute 9 In recent years, social science research has contributed largely to developing the social preconditions for innovations and the social character of innovation processes. The social sciences have analysed the innovation process. But the question regarding their contribution to the development and organization of innovations remains open.

Howaldt/Wien September 2011 Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund Central Scientific Institute 10 Division of Labor "Natural and engineering sciences are different than social sciences and the arts primarily in that the former produce innovations or the prerequisites for innovations while the latter reflects on the emergence, the implementation and the success of innovation or also seek to explain the process” (Blättel-Mink 2006, 31).

Howaldt/Wien September 2011 Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund Central Scientific Institute 11 Zapf emphasizes that it is precisely the application- oriented "tools for making decisions [delivered by the social sciences] – forecasts, incremental planning, social experiments, evaluation, practices for mobilization and motivation – (…) that [can] indeed enhance the ability of modern societies to solve problems and direct themselves" (Ibid.: 183).

Howaldt/Wien September 2011 Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund Central Scientific Institute 12 Potential contributions the social sciences can make to social innovation:  Decision-making help (survey research, personality tests, advisors risks and technology repercussions, human resources planning, etc.)  Sources of social technologies (quality compass, co- determination model, group therapy)  Approaches for general theory in order to better understand innovation and productivity (Zapf 1989: 182 et seq.)

Howaldt/Wien September 2011 Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund Central Scientific Institute 13 The core competence of the social sciences in innovation activities lies in the shaping of social contexts in which  the exchange of knowledge circulates between problem- solvers, experts, key users and the users of various sub- systems in society,  and learning processes can be initiated (cf. Gustavsen 2005)

Howaldt/Wien September 2011 Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund Central Scientific Institute 14 Social Innovation is to be "regarded as the interface point between sociological reflection and social action as it requires reflecting on social problems and intentional action." Kesselring and Leitner (2008, p. 14 et seq.)

Howaldt/Wien September 2011 Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund Central Scientific Institute 15 Main characteristics of research projects  Orientation towards being useful by solving specific practical problems  Problem development and definition as a process of consensus building and negotiation  Problem solving and knowledge production in the framework of cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional networks  New approaches, methods and tools of working  Multi-dimensional criteria of evaluation

Howaldt/Wien September 2011 Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund Central Scientific Institute 16 “More than a few social scientists believe that a stronger emphasis on application and innovation would give their discipline a better status, better career opportunities and greater relevance.” (Zapf 1989)

Howaldt/Wien September 2011 Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund Central Scientific Institute Social Innovation: Concepts, Research Fields and International Trends Studies for Innovation in a Modern Working Environment 5 Jürgen Howaldt/ Michael Schwarz