The diverse roles citizens play in change
This month in our #citizeninnovation explorer we discuss “How could citizens have changed the world for sustainability by 2050?”. Share your ideas here — Together let’s make this a revolution.
When you take a peek at what the future might hold and the changing hands of power and influence that could shape our society, it’s likely that one actor will stand out beyond all others as a remarkable agent of change. This actor — perhaps surprisingly — is the citizen. That’s you and me.
Individuals as agents of system change
Believe it or not, we could have an enormous impact on systemic change towards a sustainable society; not necessarily in scale — though this can be the case — rather, by acting against the grain of conventional thought and ‘the done thing’ to create radical new narratives and ways of doing things. More than policy-makers, government institutions, established business, small entrepreneurs or media outfits, for example — citizens and civil society organisations have the motivation and means to break with the norms that keep society locked in unsustainable patterns. The key question is how we’ll embrace this new power and the purposes we’ll pursue with it.
Shift from passive consumers to citizens innovating for themselves and beyond
The idea of citizens acting to solve issues we care about or to improve our lifestyles or their context isn’t new. Nor is it new that we’d do it without expectation of a commercial return or being compelled by rules and regulations. What’s different is that this active, creative, empowered role explodes into whole new realms as individuals are liberated by fresh stories about their identity and agency to participate in society beyond being a ‘consumer’, enabled by digital technologies to create whatever and whenever we want, and supported to act in more informed and sophisticated ways through new forms of learning and organising — sometimes alone, sometimes as part of formal and informal networks and as part of civil society organisations.
Change starts with ourselves: our own motivations will determine the role we play in change
In a fast-changing world that’s impossible to predict, our motivations, beliefs and philosophies are something that citizens and communities can exercise some influence over and use to navigate by.
What’s more, the values, mindset and ethos that guide individuals’ creative experiences have a strong bearing on the role they play in change and the impact they have over their lifetimes. The most systemic shifts needed for a sustainable society are cultural rather than technological — for example, we need more sophisticated decision-making processes for picking up and responding to the state of living systems and new forms of leadership and ways of organising to make that response happen. As these are formed by social processes that generate new ideas, meanings and modes of operating, rather than through invention, this puts a lot of emphasis on the purpose and qualities of the people doing the innovating — embodying the change we want to see in the world in order to bring it to reality.
Some of us will resist and subvert change while others will contribute and advocate for it. In the midst of all this, it’s who we are — and how we are — that will shape the innovations we’re part of.
With new power and possibilities citizens innovate against a much wider canvas
The potential for what can be innovated, and by whom, diversifies enormously into the future and this calls for a new set of understandings and a new language to describe how and what we innovate.
Digital data, platforms and services mean everyone has the tools to communicate their ideas, forge collaborations, build prototypes and develop them — and can use them to create not just new services and new ways of organising, living, producing and consuming, but new patterns of beliefs. This means that while markets concentrate on intellectual property and technological innovation and while public offices work towards political consensus, citizens are increasingly free and innovate in the gaps above and between to respond to the sustainability challenges that are affecting their lives.
What are the innovations that maverick citizens bring to reality on the pathway to the 2050 scenarios — and why do they have a big effect on society? Citizens introduce four, broad types of innovation along the scenario pathways. These innovations often don’t have an impact until a wider change of circumstances creates the conditions to enter — and alter — the mainstream. The significance of these types of innovation in influencing change along the four scenario pathways varies a lot; according to what else is going on in society and the evolution of events over time.
These different types of innovation are not discrete. They can blur and/or lead on to one another. So, for example, a community that initially embarks on an energy-related service innovation to serve a need in their locality might, through working together on an initiative that develops a different business model, inadvertently forge new narratives about the role of communities in the future of the energy system, that have a knock on effect to other communities and, ultimately, to policy.
*Refer here for a table intersecting Type of innovation // What is it and how does it contribute to systemic change? // Example of this type of innovation led by citizens in the scenarios
They play diverse roles in processes of innovation that play to their own and others’ strengths
The more complex and uncertain the challenges we want to tackle, the more collaborative and creative our response must be. This calls for new understandings and a new language for innovation that replaces the idea of the lone hero battling the odds with a more holistic view of the contributions needed to bring ideas that challenge norms into reality, and to create impact at scale.
Here are some of the roles that we identified through EU-Innovate. They can be — and often are — held by different people and organisations working together. Have you held or come across any of them?
- Stimulator: Calls for ideas or offers initial funding to resolve a social or environmental challenge. Sets the process of innovation in motion; catalyses others to do it.
- Initiator: Inspires and/or generates ideas for innovation. Likely to be active throughout the innovation process.
- Broker/ mediator: Enables and facilitates meaningful collaboration between people and organisations in order to further the innovation. Involved in organising, negotiating and eliciting feedback.
- Concept refiner: Contributes expertise to the process of testing and developing ideas to form viable, feasible and desirable concepts. Their input increases the likelihood of successful implementation.
- Legitimator: Provides assistance by building credibility and trust in the process and in the innovation itself.
- Educator: ‘Normalises’ new ways of thinking and being. Sensitises, educates and prepares key players so that they are able to respond positively to the innovation and the social and environmental issues it addresses.
- Context creator: Create an enabling context to bring innovations into reality. Includes, not limited to, changing policies and the regulatory context.
- Scaling-up Impact: Promotes and enables adoption, engagement, growth, replication and the diffusion of innovation. Seeks to increase its sustainability impacts.
Source: Aalto University
—By Gemma Adams
How could citizens have changed the world for sustainability by 2050? Please tell us what you think.
EU-InnovatE is a ground-breaking initiative funded by the European Commission aiming to accelerate the shift towards to a sustainable future. If you’d like to hear more about this project, please get in touch with Corina and Louise.
This article was first published on the Futures Centre on 23 Jan 2017.
