Research & Publications - New Approaches
Frances Westley, Sean Geobey, Kirsten Robinson
2012-02
In this paper we propose the creation of a Social Innovation Change Lab, what such a permanent process would entail and what it would aim to achieve. We discuss the multiple theoretical origins of Change or Design Labs, as the confluence of group dynamics and group psychology, complexity theory, design, and computer modelling and visual language. Change Labs provide a physical and intellectual space designed to encourage and facilitate cooperation and the co-creation of meaningful and...
Sean Geobey, Frances Westley, Olaf Weber
2011-05
In this paper we will explore social finance as a new form of investment and a new field for risk assessment. We will briefly review microfinance, social banking and impact investing as forms of social financing and their common inability to measure non-financial risk. The growth of impact investing in particular is stifled by this challenge. We will explore why risk assessment is so challenging in social finance and suggest three reasons: the difficulty in setting boundaries, the difficulty in...
Michele-Lee Moore and Frances Westley
2011-02
Introduction:
With numerous intractable problems facing the world today, calls for innovative solutions have become increasingly commonplace. Frequently, these calls are accompanied by suggestions that government policies need to be responsive, flexible, and adaptive to keep pace with the rapidity of changes taking place across the social, ecological, and economic spheres. This thinking has long been encouraged around technical innovation. Is social innovation different? With a range of policy...
Michele-Lee Moore & Frances Westley
2011-01
Abstract:
Complex challenges demand complex solutions. By their very nature, these problems are difficult to define and are often the result of rigid social structures that effectively act as “traps”. However, resilience theory and the adaptive cycle can serve as a useful framework for understanding how humans may move beyond these traps and towards the social innovation that is required to address many complex problems. This paper explores the critical question of whether networks help...
Reinette Biggs, Frances R. Westley and Stephen R. Carpenter
2010-12
Abstract:
Addressing the environmental challenges of the 21st century requires substantial changes to the way modern society views and manages ecosystems. In particular, many authors contend that fundamental transformation of the largely sectoral, expert-centered ecosystem-management institutions of modern, Western societies is needed.
There is increasing agreement that more adaptive, integrated, collaborative ecosystem-management approaches, interlinked at multiple scales, would improve...
Frances Westley, Milena Holmgren, Marten Scheffer
2010-12
A case study of the role of social marketing in promoting novel restoration strategies for degraded dry lands.
Abstract:
This article focuses on the role of social marketing, in particular the analysis of the motivations and capabilities of stakeholder groups, in encouraging acceptance of an innovative experimental approach to semiarid shrub land restoration in Chile. Controlled scientific experiments involving herbivory control during El Niño events have proved promising, but have not yet been...
2009-08
In March 2009, a Canadian delegation of federal and provincial government officials and non-profit sector leaders visited London, England, to gain information, insights and real-life examples of how innovative approaches to dealing with intractable problems are being conceived and financed in the UK. The UK Study Tour arrived on the heels of the Skoll World Forum.
Over the last several years, the United Kingdom has vigorously experimented with new models of prompting corporations, industry and...
Kirsten Robinson & Frances Westley
2009-06
This working paper draws on Kazimierz Dabrowski’s theory of positive disintegration as well as theories of resilience, to propose a new interpretive framework for understanding mental illness. In the last 50 years, increases in the effectiveness of pharmacological drugs have dramatically increased the manageability of symptoms, resulting in a psychopharmacological approach that has come to dominate. However, we argue that the psychopharmacological approach is a simple approach to a complex...
SiG@MaRS
2009-04
Introduction
Social entrepreneurs are mobilizing talent and capital from both the public and private sectors to address complex societal challenges. However, the marketplace for these ventures is emerging and traditional investment vehicles struggle to accommodate the investment opportunities presented by the social entrepreneurs in their efforts to combine a positive economic return with a social impact mission. As a result, many promising social ventures fail to achieve their true potential...
