Exposing three dark sides of social innovation through critical perspectives on resilience

Abstract

In this essay we expose three dark sides of social innovation (SI) by mobilising the concept of resilience. We examine implications for SI from (1) resilience thinking, (2) (critical) resilience studies and (3) the exceptional contexts in which resilience is needed. The first dark side of SI is that SIs lead to disruptions likely to cause unintended adverse consequences. The second dark side is that top-down SIs tend to be deployed in the name of vulnerable communities, but in neoliberal ways mainly concerned in making these communities more productive for society, at the risk of heightening their marginalisation. The third dark side is that SI discourse lends itself too easily to hijackings by powerful actors driving their own interests of capital accumulation while calling for communities to self-organise. We discuss how critical perspectives on resilience help us challenge these dark sides of SI.