Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund
Central Scientific Institute
Shaping Social Innovation by Social Research
Challenge Social Innovation
Parallel Session 2.5: Social sciences and social innovation
20th September 2011
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Howaldt
Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund – TU Dortmund
Howaldt/Wien September 2011
1
Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund
Central Scientific Institute
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
2
Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund
Central Scientific Institute
Basic assumption
Transition from an industrial to a knowledge and servicesbased 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
3
Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund
Central Scientific Institute
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
4
Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund
Central Scientific Institute
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
5
Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund
Central Scientific Institute
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
6
Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund
Central Scientific Institute
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
7
Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund
Central Scientific Institute
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
8
Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund
Central Scientific Institute
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
9
Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund
Central Scientific Institute
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
10
Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund
Central Scientific Institute
Zapf emphasizes that it is precisely the applicationoriented "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
11
Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund
Central Scientific Institute
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, codetermination model, group therapy)
 Approaches for general theory in order to better
understand innovation and productivity (Zapf 1989: 182
et seq.)
Howaldt/Wien September 2011
12
Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund
Central Scientific Institute
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 problemsolvers, experts, key users and the users of various subsystems in society,
 and learning processes can be initiated
(cf. Gustavsen 2005)
Howaldt/Wien September 2011
13
Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund
Central Scientific Institute
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
14
Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund
Central Scientific Institute
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
15
Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund
Central Scientific Institute
“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
16
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
www.sfs-dortmund.de
howaldt@sfs-dortmund.de
Howaldt/Wien September 2011
17