Surmountable Chasms: Networks and Social Innovation for Resilient Systems

Abstract

Complex challenges demand complex solutions. By their very nature, these problems are difficult to define and are often the result of rigid social structures that effectively act as "traps". However, resilience theory and the adaptive cycle can serve as a useful framework for understanding how humans may move beyond these traps and towards the social innovation that is required to address many complex problems. This paper explores the critical question of whether networks help facilitate innovations to bridge the seemingly insurmountable chasms of complex problems to create change across scales, thereby increasing resilience. The argument is made that research has not yet adequately articulated the strategic agency that must be present within the network in order for cross scale interactions to occur. By examining institutional entrepreneurship through case studies and examples, this paper proposes that agency within networks requires specific skills from entrepreneurs, including ones that enable pattern generation, relationship building and brokering, knowledge and resource brokering, and network recharging. Ultimately, this begins to build a more complete understanding of how networks may improve human capacity to respond to complex problems and heighten overall resilience.

Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory for modelling community resilience to natural disasters

“…Measures like suddenness of impact, duration of the event, degree of climatic discomfort or evacuation shelter conditions, perception of future risk of the disaster and the like can be incorporated into the assessment of resilience via this model. Masten and Obradovic (2007, 2008), Sun and Stewart (2007), Mowbray et al (2007), Burgin and Steck (2008) and Swick and Williams (2006) emphasise the linkages between the individual and family to the larger social environment of neighbourhood entities such as the school and the neighbourhood social network and how they influence individual resilience and family function. Tummala-Narra (2007) stresses that for many ethnic minorities, notions of resilience shaped largely by middle class European and North American values may not capture positive adaptation to adverse and traumatic experience that is culturally recognised and understood.…”

Connecting the Dots for Social Value: A Review on Social Networks and Social Entrepreneurship

“…In their study on the personality traits of social entrepreneurs, they unsurprisingly find a positive relationship between agreeableness and social networks, and a negative relationship between neuroticism and social networks. Social networks are finally argued to be constitutive of social entrepreneurship because they can enhance human capacity to tackle complex problems such as social needs (Moore and Westley 2011).…”

Can Collective Intelligence Produce Social Innovation?

“…The ability to reach outside the system in this way is greatly facilitated by the creation of networks that span administrative and geographic boundaries. These can be created by both formal partnerships and informal connections (Moore and Westley, 2011;Slaughter, 2004). …”