Antonius Schröder

Toward a Coherent Methodological Framework for Examining Social Innovation in the Public Sector

Creating an integrated social innovation concept requires connecting, engaging, and applying theories and practices into an encapsulating framework. Therefore, the exploitation of various methodologies becomes inevitable and a force in underpinning positive change. This study examines a coherent methodological framework that can be utilized toward examining social innovation in the public sector. The proposed framework provides foundations for examining social innovation leading toward empowering citizens and influence societal changes toward smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth.

Social Innovation in Latin America

Social innovation is on the rise in Latin America. It can be generally understood as the region’s creative response to immense social problems and societal challenges, such as low quality of health care and education as well as poverty, which affect large parts of the population and have not been successfully addressed by governments. While in a number of countries economic growth helped reduce poverty, it did not necessarily lead to more equality. Latin America remains the region with the highest income inequality in the world (Bernal 2015). Hence, social innovation can be seen as part of various approaches within modern development theories that criticize narrow economic concepts of human development (Millard 2014). In this context, the capability approach, based on the philosophical works of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum is particularly relevant (Nicholls and Ziegler 2015). As a normative and application-oriented analytical framework that focuses on the opportunity and ability for a good, successful life as well as the measurement of welfare and quality of life, it offers important points of reference for social innovation research and practice. Despite the increasing importance of social innovation in Latin America, the body of literature on this topic is still very limited and research remains scarce (Domanski et al. 2016). There is a need for a systematic approach that would better explore the ways social innovation is understood in Latin America, what drives it and which are the barriers for its development. A detailed look at the roles and functions of different societal sectors is also required. It would help to answer the question, what would social innovation policy look like in order for it to achieve broader attention and impact. Currently, social innovation in Latin America remains an area chiefly dependent on the strong involvement of NGOs and communities. The report “From social innovation to public policy” (Rey de Marulanda and Tancredi 2010) by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) gives important insights into the development of social innovation in the region, providing a lot of entirely new information on numerous initiatives in different fields. It has been a milestone in making social innovation visible as an important issue in Latin America.

From the Special Issue Editors: Social Innovation in the Public Sector

It gives us a great pleasure welcoming you to this special issue of Information Systems Management on Social Innovation in the Public Sector. This special issue consists of six diverse articles that examine social innovation from a number of angles, namely preparedness, facilitation, measurement, and enhancement of practices, with the studies being carried out across a number of European countries. The theory of innovation has a long history, dating back to the pioneering work of Schumpeter in the early 20th century. While much of the early theoretical work emphasised the socio-cultural dimensions of innovation, this was gradually displaced in favor of more economic and technological perspectives. Recently, however, there has been a revival. The concept of social innovation is becoming increasingly evident in policy, scientific, and public debates. There is a growing consensus among practitioners, policy makers, the research community, and others that widespread social innovation is required to cope with the significant challenges that societies are facing now and into the future. Furthermore, the world has witnessed unprecedented social and economic development over the past century. These changes, while beneficial in many ways, have also had less positive consequences. Climate change, resource depletion, and increasing levels of inequality are creating tensions, divisions, and conflicts in societies around the world—and not just in the rich nations. We are a long way from fulfilling the UN Millennium Development Goals envisaged for 2015. There are dangers of unpredictable and potentially uncontrollable “XEvents,” spreading poverty, hunger and distress, the risk of escalating international tensions and even wars, and— in Europe—the disintegration of the EU, the continent’s most successful peace project. Yet at the same time, there are the resources available to enable transitions to greater prosperity and social cohesion in a sustainable manner. We can see that people around the world