Overcoming wicked problems and institutional voids for social innovation: University-NGO partnerships in the Global South

2021 ◽  
Vol 173 ◽  
pp. 121104
Author(s):  
Balaji Parthasarathy ◽  
Supriya Dey ◽  
Pranjali Gupta
Keyword(s):  
Social Innovation ◽  
Wicked Problems ◽  
Global South ◽  
Institutional Voids

Digital Labour Platforms in the Global South: Filling or Creating Institutional Voids?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Heeks ◽  
Karsten Eskelund ◽  
Juan Erasmo Gomez-Morantes ◽  
Fareesa Malik ◽  
Brian Nicholson
Keyword(s):  
Global South ◽  
Institutional Voids

Improving Climate Change Resilience in Global South Cities Through South-South Climate Finance

2022 ◽  
pp. 440-448
Author(s):  
Dumisani Chirambo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Global South ◽  
Climate Finance ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Distribution Of Resources ◽  
Global North ◽  
Community Science

Climate change is likely to exacerbate inequality and poverty in Global South cities despite the presence of international agreements and conventions to enhance sustainable development such as the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Moreover, replicating Global North development models in the Global South might not be sufficient to address the climate change and development aspirations in the context of Asia; hence, Global North innovation capabilities might not be sufficient to address Global South climate change challenges. This paper provides an inductive analysis of the innovations and policies that could facilitate improved climate change mitigation and adaptation in the context of developing Asian cities. The paper concludes that innovative climate change policies should utilise emerging climate finance mechanisms such as South-South climate finance modalities to promote community science/citizen science and social innovation rather than building hard infrastructure as this could improve the governance and distribution of resources in cities.

scholarly journals Social innovation in managing diversity: COVID-19 as a catalyst for change

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Deni̇z Palalar Alkan ◽  
Mustafa Ozbilgin ◽  
Rifat Kamasak
Keyword(s):  
Social Innovation ◽  
Diversity Management ◽  
Global South ◽  
Organizational Level ◽  
Workforce Diversity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Managing Diversity ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Global North ◽  
Organizational Mechanisms

PurposeCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had an adverse impact on workforce diversity internationally. While in the Global North, many countries have sophisticated laws and organizational mechanisms and discourses to deal with such adverse impacts on workforce diversity, such structures of diversity management are either ceremonial or poorly developed in the Global South. The global pandemic disproportionately impacted Global North and Global South increases the existing gap due to vaccine rollout inequality and divergence in recoveries. The authors explore social innovation as a possible option for responding to the challenges induced by the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThe study draws on interviews in 26 distinctive organizations operating in various industries in Turkey. The authors have adopted a qualitative design to explore how social innovation helps to respond to diversity concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic.FindingsThe authors demonstrate that social innovation presents a viable option for a country with a poorly regulated context of diversity management. Social innovation could help overcome the challenge of the absence of supportive legislation, discourses and practices of diversity in poorly regulated contexts.Originality/valueThe field study revealed several distinct forms of social innovation for diversity management, which emerged as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors demonstrate that in the absence of supportive diversity management structures and frameworks, social innovation in diversity management at the organizational level could provide a viable response to the emergent needs in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Social innovation in Mexican coffee production: filling ‘institutional voids’

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 607-625 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuela Rösing Agostini ◽  
Claudia Cristina Bitencourt ◽  
Luciana Marques Vieira
Keyword(s):  
Social Innovation ◽  
Institutional Voids ◽  
Coffee Production

Social innovation and temporary innovations systems (TIS): insights from nature-based solutions in Europe

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Lee Rhodes ◽  
Siobhan McQuaid ◽  
Gemma Donnelly-Cox
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Innovation System ◽  
Wicked Problems ◽  
Wicked Problem ◽  
Case Study Methodology ◽  
Content Type ◽  
City Community ◽  
Social Innovations ◽  
Long Term Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the applicability of the complexity-based temporary innovation system (TIS) framework to social innovation and examine the extent to which “nature-based solution” (NBS) projects may be understood through a TIS lens. It is proposed that TIS provides a framework to facilitate multi-actor engagement in social innovation responses to the complexity of wicked problems? The goal is to explore if TIS provides a useful framework for understanding the evolution of social innovation projects and enabling more consciously designed and facilitated social innovation with the potential for large-scale, long-term impact. Design/methodology/approach The research uses a case study methodology in which 10 NBS projects in 3 European cities are examined and compared to the expected features of a TIS as proposed by anonymised for the review process (2018; 2019) Findings Of the 10 NBS projects, only 3 were “TIS-like”, each of which was targeting wicked problems in the city/community. As only one of the remaining 7 projects was aimed at a wicked problem, the authors concluded that the TIS framework may be best suited to those social innovations that address one or more wicked problems and that NBS projects may not display this feature. Research limitations/implications The authors conclude with a reflection on theoretical insights arising from applying the TIS framework to NBS in particular, and social innovation generally – and proposes the next steps in developing the TIS framework in relation to social innovation. Originality/value This paper applies a new complexity framework to empirical data that have not been examined previously. This analysis contributes to the development of a new framework for designing and analysing complex social innovation initiatives and challenges existing theories presenting NBSs as addressing complex “wicked” problems.

scholarly journals Social Innovation to Sustain Rural Communities: Overcoming Institutional Challenges in Serbia

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (24) ◽  
pp. 7248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivana Živojinović ◽  
Alice Ludvig ◽  
Karl Hogl
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Institutional Voids ◽  
Social Innovations ◽  
Countries In Transition ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Legal Frameworks ◽  
Context Specific

Responding to a number of longstanding challenges such as poverty, wide-ranging inequalities, environmental problems, and migration, requires new and creative responses that are often not provided by traditional governments. Social innovations can offer socio-ecological and economic solutions by introducing new practices that reduce social inequalities, disproportionate resource use and foster sustainable development. Understanding the role of social innovations is especially complicated in unstable institutional environments, e.g. in developing countries and countries in transition. This paper analyses nine social innovations in rural areas in Serbia, based on in-depth interviews and document analysis. This analysis reveals factors that facilitate or constrain social innovations whilst simultaneously identifying related formal and informal institutional voids, for example, poor law enforcement, a lack of adequate infrastructure, lack of trust, as well as norms and values that bolster patriarchal systems. The results that emerged from this research show that social innovations are operating in spite of these challenges and are facilitating improvements in a number of the aforementioned challenging areas. Some innovators engage in social entrepreneurship activities because of subsistence-oriented goals, while others follow idealistic or life-style oriented goals, thus creating new social values. Moving beyond these observations, this paper also identifies means to overcome institutional voids, such as creation of context-specific organisational structures, improved legal frameworks, and innovative financial mechanisms.

scholarly journals Social innovation as a process to overcome institutional voids: a multidimensional overview

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 72-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
MANUELA RÖSING AGOSTINI ◽  
LUCIANA MARQUES VIEIRA ◽  
MARILIA BONZANINI BOSSLE
Keyword(s):  
Social Innovation ◽  
Financial Education ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Multidimensional Analysis ◽  
Institutional Voids ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Innovative Solution ◽  
Institutional Contexts ◽  
Methodological Aspects ◽  
Multiple Actors

ABSTRACT Purpose: The objective of this paper is to propose a theoretical framework to explore social innovation as a response to institutional voids in a multidimensional analysis. Originality/gap/relevance/implications: Approaching the social innovation of the theoretical lens of institutional theory, in the institutional voids perspective. One of the gaps is to propose a multidimensional perspective that will occur through the examination of multiple actors in different institutional settings. Key methodological aspects: To support the framework, six theoretical proposals were developed from theoretical gaps identified in a systematic literature review, started in Web of Knowledge database. Summary of key results: Results indicate dimensions that can be investigated in social innovation initiatives that fill institutional voids. The following dimensions were found: dimensions of institutional contexts (considering different contexts and the interference of political, financial, education/work and cultural systems); dimension of multiple actors (giving voice to different actors who have complementary objectives); dimension of the institutional pillars (cognitive, normative and regulative) and dimensions of social innovation (modify/transform a social need; innovative solution, implementation of social innovation, involve actors and stakeholders and effective results). Key considerations/conclusions: This framework can be further tested in comparative studies among countries with distinguished levels of development. We identified the importance to analyze different social contexts and the diverse actors who are involved in social innovation initiatives. We identify new areas that are influencing social innovation and we propose new possibilities to investigate this field.

Digital labour platforms in Pakistan: institutional voids and solidarity networks

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fareesa Malik ◽  
Richard Heeks ◽  
Silvia Masiero ◽  
Brian Nicholson
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Global South ◽  
Institutional Voids ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Training Project ◽  
Power Asymmetries ◽  
Work Training ◽  
Socio Economic Development ◽  
Enabling Institutions

PurposeWhile digital labour platforms are being increasingly studied across the Global South, the existing literature does not conceptualise the theoretical link between such platforms and socio-economic development. This paper theorises such a link drawing on the notion of institutional voids defined, as in Khanna and Palepu (2010), as “the absence of intermediaries to efficiently connect buyers and sellers” in an economy. We frame digital labour platforms as means to fill institutional voids, seeking to create “development” in the form of earning opportunities in contexts of deprivation.Design/methodology/approachWe draw on an interpretive case study of an online work training project in a deprived region of Pakistan, where members of marginalised communities were trained to become freelancers for global digital labour platforms. We use the notion of market-enabling institutions aimed at filling institutional voids as a lens to study the project's declared goals, examining the extent to which these were met in practice for the workers who participated in the training.FindingsOur analysis reveals three types of market-enabling institutions–credibility enhancers, aggregators and distributors, and transaction facilitators–through which digital labour platforms seek to fill institutional voids. However, workers' narratives reveal that institutional voids are only partially filled by these platforms, and their perpetuation results in diverse forms of power asymmetries leveraged by clients and owners of the platforms. We also observe the formation of solidarity networks among workers, networks that are intra-familial and societal rather than characterised by formal unionisation.Originality/valueThe paper offers a novel perspective to theorise the link between digital labour and socio-economic development. Applying such a perspective in a Global South context, it also finds the limits of the digital platforms' institutional void-filling potential, highlighting the emergence of power asymmetries and the emerging formation of worker solidarity networks.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document