Societies of Social Innovation Voices and Arguments
Ander Gurrutxaga Abad
Ander Gurrutxaga Abad
has been Professor of Sociology at the University
of the Basque Country since 1994. Among his recent works are
Occidente y las Otras Modernidades (2008) and Implications of
Current Research on Social Innovation in the Basque Country
(2011). He has taught as a visiting professor at various universities
in Spain and abroad, and is currently Director of the Laboratory
on Social Innovation at the University of the Basque Country.
The object of this study
is to clarify the meanings and uses of social innovation in contemporary
societies. The author makes use of the forms of analysis provided
by theories of social change and the multi-disciplinary, long-term
approach that is associated with ‘Big History’, with its focus on
evidence and insights from different scientific and historical disciplines,
together with empirical resources that are employed in advanced
countries and societies in the construction of innovative environments. … For contemporary societies, social innovation
is a concept that is present in a wide variety of experiences and
in multiple situations. Historically, it has been seen as related
to a capacity for social experimentation, collective learning, the
creation of knowledge and the ability to transfer it. Today, it
is associated with a range of experiences, dimensions and fields
within the language of management and economics, and in the social
and productive uses of technology. Civic organizations of different
kinds, public institutions and social movements are all aware of
its importance, and repeatedly assert its significance. They associate
it with risk, with uncertainty and with a role as an instrument
for the reinvention of the ethics of capitalism. It is through this
humanistic process that social innovation creates contexts and conditions
that can improve the future of society in general.
