Nadia von Jacobi

Tackling Marginalisation through Social Innovation? Examining the EU Social Innovation Policy Agenda from a Capabilities Perspective

Abstract This paper demonstrates that the capabilities approach offers a number of conceptual and evaluative benefits for understanding social innovation and—in particular, its capacity to tackle marginalisation. Focusing on the substantive freedoms and achieved functionings of individuals introduces a multidimensional, plural appreciation of disadvantage, but also of the strategies to overcome it. In light of this, and the institutional embeddedness of marginalisation, effective social innovation capable of tackling marginalisation depends on (a) the participation of marginalised individuals in (b) a process that addresses the social structuration of their disadvantage. In spite of the high-level ideals endorsed by the European Union (EU), social innovation tends to be supported through EU policy instruments as a means towards the maintenance of prevailing institutions, networks and cognitive ends. This belies the transformative potential of social innovation emphasised in EU policy documentation and neglects the social structuration processes from which social needs and societal challenges arise. One strategy of displacing institutional dominance is to incorporate groups marginalised from multiple institutional and cognitive centres into the policy design and implementation process. This incorporates multiple value sets into the policy-making process to promote social innovation that is grounded in the doings and beings that all individuals have reason to value.

Creating (Economic) Space for Social Innovation

1: Alex Nicholls and Rafael Ziegler: The Extended Social Grid Model Part One 2: Risto Heiskala: Social Innovation, Power, and Marginalization 3: Rafael Ziegler and Nadia von Jacobi: Creating Fair (Economic) Space for Social Innovation? A Capabilities Perspective 4: Georg Mildenberger, Gudrun-Christine Schimpf, Enrica Chiappero-Martinetti, and Nadia von Jacobi: Empirical Approaches to Social Innovation Part Two 5: Gudrun-Christine Schimpf, Georg Mildenberger, Susanne Giesecke, and Attila Havas: Trajectories of Social Innovation: Housing for All? 6: Gudrun-Christine Schimpf and Rafael Ziegler: Trajectories of Social Innovation: Water For All? 7: Gyoergy Molnar and Attila Havas: Trajectories of Social Innovation: Tackling Marginalisation with a Complex Approach 8: Martijn Jeroen van der Linden: Trajectories of Social Innovation: Education 9: Lara Maestripieri: Creating Alternative Economic Spaces. The Socially Innovative Practices of Solidarity Purchasing Groups 10: Nadia von Jacobi, Enrica Chiappero-Martinetti, Rafael Ziegler, Martijn van der Linden and Cees van Beers: Social Innovation and Agency 11: Alex Nicholls and Daniel Edmiston: Social Innovation Policy in the European Union 12: Alex Nicholls and Daniel Edmiston: Public Policy As Social Innovation: Social Impact Bonds Part Three 13: Rafael Ziegler, Alex Nicholls, Jari Aro, Cees van Beers, Enrica Chiappero-Marinetti, Daniel Edmiston, Attila Havas, Risto Heiskala, Nadia von Jacobi, Klaus Kubczenko, Martijn Jeroen van der Lin den , Lara Maestripieri, Georg Mildenberger, Gyoergy Molnar, and Gudrun-Christine Schimpf: The Extended Social Grid Model Revisited 14: C.W.M. (Ro) Naastepad: Capital and Capacities: Using Capital to Create Economic Space for Capacities 15: Alex Nicholls, Nadia von Jacobi, Enrica Chiappero-Martinetti, and Georg Mildenberger: The Impact of Social Innovation 16: Nadia von Jacobi, Alex Nicholls, Daniel Edmiston, Attila Havas, Klaus Kubeczko, Gyoergy Molnar, Georg Mildenberger, and Gudrun Schimpf: Social Innovation Policy

Light and Shade of Multidimensional Indexes

The aim of this chapter is to discuss and measure the impact on results of three main methodological assumptions in the construction of multidimensional indexes of poverty and well-being – namely, the transformation function, the aggregation procedure and the weighting system chosen. The empirical analysis is based on Jordan DHS (2002, 2007) datasets and integrated by a fieldwork conducted on a sample of students and development experts for eliciting information related to the relative weights attached to several well-being domains considered (education, health, housing, employment and personal security). A robustness analysis has been conducted quantifying the relative and global impact of different combinations of these three methodological choices on poverty estimates both at national and sub-national level.

Social Innovation, Individuals and Societies: An Empirical Investigation of Multi-layered Effects

ABSTRACT Empirical investigation of social innovation and its effects is a much under-explored terrain. Difficulties range from the conceptual complexity of social innovation processes to empirical implementation. This study applies a conceptual framework (ESGM) that envisages multi-layered effects of social innovation on individuals and societies. It analyzes subjective, primary data to compare three different European cases, proposing an empirical strategy to capture their effects. Perceptions of participants report improvements in autonomy and that social innovations mainly produce intangible outcomes such as knowledge and personal relationships, which are unlikely to be captured in synthetic measures such as average effects or money metrics.

How and when does speech-acting generate social innovations

Speaking is a normal, a special and ubiquitous human activity. Speaking or writing as a subjective and willful activity directed at others takes place within a dense set of behavioral norms. Speaking also activates selectively resources, concepts, logics and rules in language. We investigate the power of the language institution, speech-acting, constructed narratives and deliberations in creating social innovations. We look at new organizations, especially the constitution of new groups with operative collective intentions as social innovations. We ask how speech-acting theory can add or deepen insight into the constitution, the creation, the sustainability and the breakdown of organizations. Speech-acting theory has a focus on rationality as reasoning. Both Amartya Sen and John Searle have delved into reasoning – as creative subjectivity in multi-institutional settings. We try to exploit critically some of their philosophical findings into the field of empirical organization and social innovation studies.

Human Development and Economic Growth

Human development and economic growth are two different paradigms that imply different objectives, measurement techniques, and policies. However, a broad literature has shown that economic growth and human development are intrinsically interconnected, co-evolutionary, and mutually reinforcing each other. The key aim of this chapter is to discuss and compare these two paradigms and outline their elements of specificity as well as their potential linkages. In particular, a review of potential linkages between human development and economic growth highlights their bidirectionality, both in theory and in terms of policy implications. In addition to the main theories, some empirical evidence is also being presented. Finally, specific sections are devoted to policy implications and specificities of transition countries.

The Role of Social Participation for Women's Ability to Combine Motherhood and Employment Security in Mali and Ghana

This study investigates the role of social participation for the achievements of women in employment security and their fertility choices. In Capability terms, this implies exploring the circumstances in which women combine motherhood and employment security. Employment security is defined as having access to a job with more desirable characteristics, such as stable payment or in a more formal sector of the economy. The DHS and Afrobarometer data are used for two African countries: Ghana and Mali. Estimations from a multilevel model suggest that the resources of the context are a relevant explanatory factor for female employment security. The latent contextual effect for employment security is more pronounced in Mali (33%) than in Ghana (17%). Results confirm that the two countries are very different despite certain common effects. In both countries, social participation seems to play a role in the fertility-labour link, especially for women with more than four children.

Theorizing Social Innovation to Address Marginalization

ABSTRACT Social innovation has increasingly been referred to as a potential driver for – transformative and disruptive -- social change because it offers the potential to provide solutions to social needs that the current institutional status quo neglects or only partially attends to. In this introduction to the special issue on social innovation and marginalisation, the editors provide an overview of the theoretical framework, with which the two phenomena can be put into connection. It introduces the Extended Social Grid Model, in which an institutionalist perspective on social forces can be combined with the capability approach that puts human agency at its core.

What Makes Poor Countries Poor? Institutional Determinants of Development

health move across borders, and solutions that step outside internal social contracts include going beyond the agreement that local institutions are adequate to address morbidity, mortality and health. Venkatapuram insists, rightly I think, that the claim is to action, and the details of how to accomplish this comprise an ambitious and long-term project – or projects. The depth of his approach in Health Justice, based on his writings, does not yet match the depth of his aims. That said, the book provides an excellent overview and introduction to the key issues in health justice for the informed general reader. Social and policy scientists will find the devil in the details as they delineate complex causal relationships and specify action for specific health conditions. In Health Justice they will find solid arguments and principles for extending what we think of locally onto the global stage. A good copy-editor would have caught the many unnecessary and distracting typos, punctuation errors and occasional missing words.