I’ve been looking at the Young Foundation & Nesta’s Open Book of Social Innovation over the weekend – super interesting. Here’s a quick précis:
“The classic tools of government policy on the one hand, and market solutions on the other, have proved grossly inadequate“
“The silos of government departments are poorly suited to tackling complex problems which cut across sectors and nation states. Civil society lacks the capital, skills and resources to take promising ideas to scale.”
“The prospective cost of dealing with these issues threatens to swamp public budgets, and in the case of climate change, or healthcare in the US, private budgets as well.”
“an emerging social economy…Its key features include:
• The intensive use of distributed networks to sustain and manage relationships, helped by broadband, mobile and other means of communication.
• Blurred boundaries between production and consumption.
• An emphasis on collaboration and on repeated interactions, care and maintenance rather than one-off consumption.
• A strong role for values and missions.
“The role of the consumer changes from a passive to an active player: to a producer in their own right.”
“Innovation in the public sector always risks being a marginal add-on – small scale in terms of funds, commitment of people and political capital.”
Joe Mitchell 