Double Weaving: A Bottom-Up Process of Connecting Locations and Scales to Mitigate Grand Challenges

Abstract

Grand challenges are system-wide problems. While top-down approaches to mitigating grand challenges may have potentially far-reaching impact, such initiatives from the higher scales can fail because of limited knowledge of ground realities. At the same time, resilient local efforts to address societal challenges can have limited reach. How can a grassroots organization work across locations and scales to address a grand challenge? We report the findings of a longitudinal case study of the Child In Need Institute (CINI), a non-profit organization that successfully scaled its impact to reach over seven million beneficiaries. Based on 40 years of archival data and four years of intensive fieldwork, our findings reveal “double weaving” as a recursive process of diagnosing and addressing problems by connecting actors and resources across locations and scales. The double-weaving process gives researchers a framework to explore the complex interplay between locations and scales that is necessary to address grand challenges. Our study contributes to research on grand challenges and scaling, advancing the spatial turn in organizational studies by developing the scalar dimension and expanding research that has primarily focused on locations.