TY - JOUR
T1 - Guest editorial
T2 - Complexity as a model for social innovation and social entrepreneurship: is there order in the chaos?
AU - French, Max
AU - McGowan, Katharine
AU - Rhodes, Mary Lee
AU - Zivkovic, Sharon
N1 - This paper forms part of a special section “Advancing the Study of Complexity in Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Studies”, guest edited by Max French, Katharine McGowan, Mary Lee Rhodes and Sharon Zivkovic.
PY - 2022/3/29
Y1 - 2022/3/29
N2 - The complexity sciences are subject to increasing policy interest from governments and international organisations as a means for fostering both social innovation and social entrepreneurship. However, there remains little conceptual clarity in how theories, concepts and ideas can be used consistently and productively. This article reviews the application of the complexity sciences in social innovation and social entrepreneurship scholarship overall and considers its implications for both fields. We outline how social innovation and social entrepreneurship can be conceptualised as complex processes, set within complex environments, tackling complex goals, and present a suitably revised model of the social innovation lifecycle. Based on this review - and the articles contributed to this special issue of Social Enterprise Journal – we argue that a complexity-informed perspective can contribute to scholarship and practice in three ways: as a rhetorical device, as an analytical framework for empirical analysis, and as a basis for developing new tools and methods for social innovation and social entrepreneurship. In this way academics can play a crucial role in helping policymakers and practitioners interested in the complexity sciences walk a line between fatalism and overstatement.
AB - The complexity sciences are subject to increasing policy interest from governments and international organisations as a means for fostering both social innovation and social entrepreneurship. However, there remains little conceptual clarity in how theories, concepts and ideas can be used consistently and productively. This article reviews the application of the complexity sciences in social innovation and social entrepreneurship scholarship overall and considers its implications for both fields. We outline how social innovation and social entrepreneurship can be conceptualised as complex processes, set within complex environments, tackling complex goals, and present a suitably revised model of the social innovation lifecycle. Based on this review - and the articles contributed to this special issue of Social Enterprise Journal – we argue that a complexity-informed perspective can contribute to scholarship and practice in three ways: as a rhetorical device, as an analytical framework for empirical analysis, and as a basis for developing new tools and methods for social innovation and social entrepreneurship. In this way academics can play a crucial role in helping policymakers and practitioners interested in the complexity sciences walk a line between fatalism and overstatement.
U2 - 10.1108/SEJ-05-2022-140
DO - 10.1108/SEJ-05-2022-140
M3 - Editorial
SN - 1750-8614
VL - 18
SP - 237
EP - 251
JO - Social Enterprise Journal
JF - Social Enterprise Journal
IS - 2
ER -