The chapter deals with the trajectory of social housing as a social innovation in European countries from the nineteenth century to the present. The long-term analysis of this comprehensive case study is guided by the Extended Social Grid Model (ESGM). Following a short description of seven different phases of social housing, the chapter turns to the role of social powers and the capability approach. All in all, the involvement of various actors and social networks in shaping a successful innovation becomes visible. Another important point is the insight that social innovations have to adjust to ever changing contexts du their trajectory. The analysis sheds light on supporting conditions of successful social innovations and reflects on the co-evolution of social and business innovations.
The basis of this chapter is a comprehensive case study on freshwater supply in European countries from the nineteenth century to the present. First, the chapter introduces the different phases of freshwater supply during that time span as well as various modes of provision (self-provision, informal provision, market provision, public provision, and professional provision). Then, the chapter turns to a change in cognitive framing, and the important achievement of framing water provision as a social challenge in the nineteenth century, as well as the role civic participation played for this. Next the analysis concentrates on the central question of provision as it is visible in the debate on market versus public provision. How can civic involvement help keep the institutionalized innovation on target so as to ensure clean and affordable water for all? The issues of knowledge, path dependency, and niche modes of provision are also discussed.
This chapter describes two empirical approaches with which social innovation and its potentially transformative role can be studied. Both are oriented towards the Extended Social Grid Model (ESGM) and strive to bring its abstract categories on the ground and facilitate empirical analyses; first an analysis of long-term comprehensive case studies; and second a mixed-method approach inspired by the capability approach for evaluating the impact of social innovations. Both approaches enter new ground in social innovation research and supply valuable insights into the nature of social innovation and how it can be examined. The historical approach reveals the complexities of social innovation trajectories; the agency oriented approach of the more quantitative study opens new paths for a measurement of social innovation impacts that can be applied in many situations.
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