Description
Book SynopsisThis book explores how the State can play a role as an enabler of citizens-led social innovations, to accelerate the shift to sustainable and socially just lifestyles.
To meet the twin challenges of environmental degradation and the rise of inequalities, societal transformation is urgent. Most theories of social change focus either on the role of the State, on the magic of the market, or on the power of technological innovation. This book explores instead how local communities, given the freedom to experiment, can design solutions that can have a transformative impact. Change cannot rely only on central ordering by government, nor on corporations suddenly acting as responsible citizens. Societal transformation, at the speed and scope required, also should be based on the reconstitution of social capital, and on new forms of democracy emerging from collective action at the local level. The State matters of course, for the provision of both public services and of social p
Table of Contents
1. The dusk of the consumer society and the role of social innovation 2. Obstructing myths 3. How social innovations relate to societal transformation: four scenarios 4. The new activism 5. Enabling societal transformation without the myths 6. The missing Sustainable Development Goal: enabling social innovations 7. The state as enabler of social innovations
