Special Issue: Game Changers and transformative social innovation

What are the game-changers of our times? How do economic trends, climate change, technological revolutions and other such macro-developments relate to social change and innovation? These questions underlie our recently published special issue in Ecology & Society.

It has been 3,5 years ago since we organised the synthesis workshop on game-changers in Rotterdam. A total of 25 scholars from across the world gathered to discuss the role of game-changers in TSI processes, from the perspective of various disciplines, theoretical traditions, and world regions. The focus of the workshop was on unpacking and discussing, both theoretically and empirically, the global game-changers of our times, e.g., climate change, resource depletion, geopolitical instability, economic crises, increasing inequality, ageing and health, migration, and social cohesion, and to explore how these game-changers relate to different forms of social innovation and transformative change. The result is an issue with a total of 9 articles covering case-studies across Africa, India, Brazil, Argentina, USA, Canada and Europe. All articles in the special issue are open access and free to download.

Guest editorial
Title: Game-changers and transformative social innovation
Authors: Flor Avelino, Julia M. Wittmayer, René Kemp, and Alex Haxeltine

Research
Title: Climate adaptation, transitions, and socially innovative action-research approaches
Authors: Inês S Campos, Filipe M Alves, João Dinis, Monica Truninger, André Vizinho, and Gil Penha-Lopes (Portugal)

Title: Innovating at the margins: the System of Rice Intensification in India and transformative social innovation
Authors: Shambu C. Prasad (India)

Title: The economic crisis as a game changer? Exploring the role of social construction in sustainability transitions
Authors: Derk Loorbach, Flor Avelino, Alex Haxeltine, Julia M. Wittmayer, Tim O’Riordan, Paul Weaver, and René Kemp (Europe)

Title: Coproduced game-changing in transformative social innovation: reconnecting the “broken city” of Rio de Janeiro
Authors: Carla Cipolla, Rita Afonso, Bonno Pel, Roberto Bartholo, Édison Renato Silva, and Domício Proença Júnior (Brazil)

Insight
Title: Insight Africa’s game changers and the catalysts of social and system innovation
Author: Mark Swilling (Africa)

Title: How game changers catalyzed, disrupted, and incentivized social innovation: three historical cases of nature conservation, assimilation, and women’s rights
Authors: Frances R. Westley, Katharine A. McGowan, Nino Antadze, Jaclyn Blacklock, and Ola Tjornbo (Canada & USA)

Title: The concept of the Anthropocene as a game-changer: a new context for social innovation and transformations to sustainability
Authors: Per Olsson, Michele-Lee Moore, Frances R. Westley, and Daniel D. P. McCarthy

Title: Potentialities and constraints in the relation between social innovation and public policies: some lessons from South America
Authors: Ariel Gordon, Lucas D. Becerra, and Mariano Fressoli (South-America: Argentina & Brazil)

Synthesis
Title: Synthesis Emergent transformation games: exploring social innovation agency and activation through the case of the Belgian electricity blackout threat
Authors: Bonno Pel, Grégoire Wallenborn, and Tom Bauler (Belgium)

Date
January 16, 2018