Communities of Social Innovation : On the Advent of a New Kind of Collaborative Community

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  • 社会変革のコミュニティー : 新しい「恊働体」の誕生とその構造
  • シャカイ ヘンカク ノ コミュニティー : アタラシイ 「 キョウドウタイ 」 ノ タンジョウ ト ソノ コウゾウ

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Abstract

In the past two decades, a new global field of practice and research has emerged around the concepts of social entrepreneurship and innovation. However, notwithstanding important advances in explaining the behaviour of social entrepreneurs, the logic of their business models and examples of social innovation, the field has not yet adequately dealt with collaborative phenomena. This brief conceptual paper thus strives to construct a flexible framework through which this dimension can be more systematically investigated. It proposes that collaborative activity in the social entrepreneurship field increasingly unfolds in the context of so-called Social Innovation Communities-hybrid entities driven by socially entrepreneurial cultures as well as by a combination of physical (co-working) spaces and digital Internet architectures. From Kyoto and Tokyo to Toronto and London, such communities are now emerging across the world and they may be viewed as collaborative communities that (beyond facilitating collaboration in an immediate sense) help "rewire" wider social innovation circuits in a given area. By incorporating diverse participants, accelerating processes of learning and enhancing our creative capabilities, Social Innovation Communities are set to catalyze the transition towards inventive, sustainable economies. A range of disciplinary and methodological approaches, from Social Network Analysis, Social Capital Theory and ethnographic methods, can be fruitfully applied to the further study of these entities, the innovation processes they facilitate and the impacts they bring about.

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