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Description
At time of climate emergency and rapid biodiversity loss, there is a need for transformation to a more sustainable economy and society. The rapid change needed requires social innovations of different types and at different scales. This theme will examine how social innovation can contribute to this deep transition, and the challenges facing social innovation.
The need for more research in this area is increasing rapidly as governments and organizations aim for net zero emissions and citizen movements campaign for acceleration of change worrying about greenwashing and “blah blah blah”. Innovations to address the climate emergency range from technological solutions via changes in consumption and pro-environmental behaviour to more directly political forms of social innovation. They also include exnovations, i.e., the deliberate ending of practices and divestment from past innovation. Social innovation research can focus on vulnerable groups specifically affected by the climate and biodiversity emergency, as well as focus on the policies and programmes put in place to tackle them and the associated innovation-exnovation dynamics. Research can also focus on alternative organization forms – such as the variety of social enterprises and cooperatives – to explore their contribution to transformation.
Transformation requires different ways of thinking about the economy and growth, with social innovations focusing on living well within planetary boundaries. This challenges the assumptions of endless economic growth but also requires alternative visions of desirable futures, utopias, and methods of visioning.
Transformation also calls for the scaling up of beneficial innovations and transitions in many sectors. The climate and biodiversity emergency requires a greater understanding of innovation that breaks down the silos of thinking between social and environmental goals, and that bridges the worlds of academia, practice, and policy.
We welcome papers in the following topics as well as others related to the theme of the stream:
The design of climate transitions to net zero, and transformations towards sustainability in just and inclusive ways
Bringing the social and environmental together in innovation research
Research on social innovation as well as social exnovation (the ending of practices and divestment)
Post growth, de-growth, and growth agnostic approaches to understanding the economy and social change
Social innovation for corporate sustainability and corporate social responsibility as well as alternative organization forms
Niche restoration of sustainable but often marginalized forms of living with the natural environment
Democratic innovation and activism by NGOs, individuals, lawyers, other businesses, and academics
Legitimacy building, certification approaches and other regulatory systems for the climate and biodiversity emergency
Investment and divestment for the climate emergency and biodiversity loss
Policy approaches for social innovation for the climate emergency and biodiversity loss
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