Social Justice Innovation. A Cross-Disciplinary and Multilayered Agenda

This chapter outlines social innovation as an activity that cuts across societal and scientific fields and presents a holistic understanding of the relationship between social innovation and social justice. As conceptualized in this chapter, social innovation brings together the aims and processes of innovation, for the purpose of just distribution of opportunities within societies and beyond. Social innovation is both functionally and conceptually multidimensional. A characterizing feature is that it takes place in the intersection between the private and the public, affecting the roles of the state, the private sector, and the third sector. This gives rise to a variety of questions relating to the different layers and impacts of social innovation, its ideological framing and transformative function, and concerns about accountability and responsibility. The chapter identifies some of the potential and opportunities, as well as core complexities and tensions that social innovation may entail. Particular attention is given to the role of the state in enabling social innovation as well as to contextual concerns affecting social innovation on the African continent.