The Process of Social Innovation

Abstract

Much of what we now take for granted in social life began as radical innovation. A century ago, few believed that ordinary people could be trusted to drive cars at high speed, the idea of a national health service freely available was seen as absurdly utopian, the concept of “kindergarten” was still considered revolutionary, and only one country had given women the vote. Yet in the interim, these and many other social innovations have progressed from the margins to the mainstream. During some periods in recent history, civil society provided most of the impetus for social innovation (see box, facing page). The great wave of industrialization and urbanization in the nineteenth century was accompanied by an extraordinary upsurge of social enterprise and innovation: mutual self-help, microcredit, building societies, cooperatives, trade unions, reading clubs, and philanthropic business leaders creating model towns and model schools. In nineteenth and early twentieth century Britain, civil society pioneered the most influential new models of childcare, housing, community development and social care. At other times governments have taken the lead in social innovation—for example, in the years after 1945 democratic governments built welfare states, schooling systems, and institutions using methods such as credit banks for farmers and networks of adult education colleges. (This was a period when many came to see civic and charitable organizations as too parochial, paternalist, and inefficient to meet social needs on any scale.) There is every reason to believe that the pace of social innovation will, if anything, accelerate in the coming century. There is certainly more money flowing into NGOs and civil society than ever before. Economies in both developed and (to Geoff Mulgan