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TRANsformative Social Innovation Theory (TRANSIT)
TRANSIT (TRANsformative Social Innovation Theory) is an ambitious research project that will develop a theory of transformative social innovation which is about empowerment and change in society. It is co-funded by the European Commission and runs for four years, from January 2014 until December 2017. TRANSIT will utilize a research method which encourages feedback from social entrepreneurs and innovators, policy makers and academics to develop a theory with practical relevance. The theory will be based on insights from other theories e.g. transition theory, social movement theory and institutional theory. The research project studies how social innovation can bring about empowerment and societal transformation.
TRANSIT in a nutshell
The TRANSIT-website , -blog and -resource hub contain all the details about the project, including the deliverables, reports, policy briefs and issued publications.
TRANSIT is a multipartner, FP7 EU project coordinated by DRIFT (Erasmus University, Rotterdam, NL).
In synthesis :
Vision – Increase the impact and potential of transformative social innovation that can empower people and facilitate change for sustainable development in society.
Mission – Develop a theory of transformative social innovation with a focus on empowerment and change in society that is both relevant and practical.
Conceptual focus
TRANSIT is structured around 4 thematic focus areas: governance, social learning, funding and monitoring. We will develop theoretical and practically relevant insights for those thematic areas, which will form the basis for policy briefs and capacity building tools. Examples of questions that will be addressed include: what forms of governance facilitate transformative social innovation?; how can funding mechanisms become more effective? TRANSIT also zooms in on the effects of macro trends in society, such as the financial crisis, climate change and the ICT-revolution, which we refer to as ‘game changers’. It aims to develop insights about interpreting future changes (that can be used in e.g. forecasting and scenario planning tools) and about improving our effectiveness while working in changing circumstances.
Research Approach
Structure of the project
TRANSIT is structured in 6 Work Packages of which ULB is leading WP5.
WP1 Project management – the coordinator is DRIFT (Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands) and it is set up to coordinate, develop, integrate and manage all (financial, scientific, information) resources of the consortium. It does the overall management, establishes and keeps contact with an Interdisciplinary Advisory Board and it will be facilitating scientific & internal knowledge management.
WP2 Synthesis – the coordinator is ICIS (University of Maastricht, the Netherlands). The main objective is translating theoretical insights into working papers, policy recommendations and practical tools. The tasks are the organisation of synthesis workshops, the production of working papers, policy briefs and prototypes for tools.The focus areas of those outputs are:
- Global Societal Challenges and Game-changers in relation to Social Innovation
- Governance
- Social Learning
- Resourcing
- Monitoring
WP3 Theory and concepts – the coordinator is the 3S-group (University of East Anglia, United Kingdom) and the overall objective is to develop a practically relevant middle-range theory of transformative social innovation processes in an iterative process and in co-production with a variety of actors. Central questions are how social innovation relates to its context and how it is influenced by and influences the dynamics in society as well as how we can value and measure impacts and processes of transformative social innovation.
WP4 In-depth Case Studies – The coordinator is the Aalborg University (Denmark) and the focus is the collection and analysis of in-depth empirical evidence about social innovation. This will be done by carrying out in-depth case studies of transnational social innovation networks and their local manifestations that follow a set of methodological case study guidelines.
WP5 Meta-Analysis – the coordinator is the ULB-CEDD - Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. In contrast to WP4 that has an in-depth focus, this WP aims to collect and analyse a high quantity of evidence about social innovation. This will be done by conducting a survey amongst local manifestations of transnational social innovation networks. The results will be collected in an open-source an internet-based database (web-based resource hub). The data is analysed by means of detailed comparative, quali-quantitative analyses against the research questions identified in WP3.
WP6 Communication and engagement – the coordinator is IHS (Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands) and the objective is the communication of the project results, stakeholder engagement and the facilitation of learning and capacity building in EU and Latin America. This WP shares knowledge and insights about transformative social innovation with a web based resource hub and it actively engages with other actors via engagement workshops, a reference group and by linking to existing SI platforms.
Our steps in 2015
In 2014, we amongst others published our first empirical materials, organized a theoretical and empirical workshop in Norwich took place, two workshops with social innovators and entrepreneurs, policy-makers, researchers took place in Argentina and The Netherlands, plus workshops on Game-changers and Governance,created two training tools and finalized the first prototype theory (see our reports).
In May 2015 we are in the midst of preparing our second round of empirical research, in which we will research more transnational social innovation networks and local manifestations. We will also draw up a database for our more elaborate empirical work in which we aim to study over 150 local manifestations of networks. At the same time, a team of researchers is dedicated to writing our first practice brief that will be published this summer. For the development of our Transformative Social Innovation-theory, we will continue to integrate theoretical reviews. In November, we will have our Mid-term conference, titled ‘Social Innovation 2015: pathways to social change’, co-organized with SI-DRIVE and SCORAI-workshop, titled “Beyond’ Transition? Understanding and achieving sustainable consumption through social innovation’. By the end of 2015, we plan to finish our second round of empirical work.
Collaborations
The TRANSIT project is coordinated by DRIFT (Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands), and involves twelve separate research institutes from across Europe and Latin-America.
- DRIFT (Coordinator) – Erasmus University of Rotterdam, the Netherlands
- 3S-group – University of East Anglia, United Kingdom
- ICIS – University of Maastricht, the Netherlands
- IHS – Erasmus University of Rotterdam, the Netherlands
- ULB-CEDD – Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
- AAU – Aalborg University, Denmark
- SPRU – University of Sussex, United Kingdom
- IEC-UNQ – Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Argentina
- COPPE – Rio de Janeiro Federal University, Brasil
- People-Environment Research Group – Universidade da Coruña, Spain
- BOKU – University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, Austria
- ESSRG – research and development SME, Hungary
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