How social innovation "came to be": tracing the evolution of a contested concept
Noorseha Ayob*, Simon Teasdale*, Kylie Fagan*
Yunus Centre
Glasgow School for Business and Society
Social innovation is a contested concept with multiple meanings that have implications beyond academia. It is not a new term - its sociological heritage can be dated to the late nineteenth century. However, until the twenty-first century the concept was sparsely utilised, and, despite its current popularity among policy makers in Europe and the United States, remains largely ignored by social policy researchers. Through bibliometric analysis we identify the most influential articles on social innovation and explore how these have conceptualised the term. We show that over time social innovation has taken on a set of meanings far removed from its sociological roots. In particular we identify a weak tradition that sees social innovation as any increase in aggregate individual utility arising from an innovation, and a strong tradition that focuses on the process of collaboration between different groups and the restructuring of power relations. We conclude by outlining implications for social policy research.
Journal of Social Policy
bibliometric analysis
contested concept
Social Sciences(all)
Ayob, N. et al (2016) Journal of Social Policy article
This is the author final version of the article originally published in: Journal of Social Policy on 10 March 2016 by Cambridge University Press. The final publisher version of this article is available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/S004727941600009X. © Cambridge University Press 2016
Author accepted manuscript, 839 KB
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social policy Earth & Environmental Sciences 67%
Social Policy Social Sciences 40%
power relations Earth & Environmental Sciences 34%
nineteenth century Earth & Environmental Sciences 26%
twenty first century Earth & Environmental Sciences 21%
twenty-first century Social Sciences 20%
popularity Social Sciences 20%
Ayob, N., Teasdale, S., & Fagan, K. (2016). How social innovation "came to be": tracing the evolution of a contested concept. Journal of Social Policy, 45(4), 635-653. https://doi.org/10.1017/S004727941600009X
Ayob, Noorseha ; Teasdale, Simon ; Fagan, Kylie. / How social innovation "came to be": tracing the evolution of a contested concept. In: Journal of Social Policy. 2016 ; Vol. 45, No. 4. pp. 635-653.
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title = "How social innovation "came to be": tracing the evolution of a contested concept",
abstract = "Social innovation is a contested concept with multiple meanings that have implications beyond academia. It is not a new term - its sociological heritage can be dated to the late nineteenth century. However, until the twenty-first century the concept was sparsely utilised, and, despite its current popularity among policy makers in Europe and the United States, remains largely ignored by social policy researchers. Through bibliometric analysis we identify the most influential articles on social innovation and explore how these have conceptualised the term. We show that over time social innovation has taken on a set of meanings far removed from its sociological roots. In particular we identify a weak tradition that sees social innovation as any increase in aggregate individual utility arising from an innovation, and a strong tradition that focuses on the process of collaboration between different groups and the restructuring of power relations. We conclude by outlining implications for social policy research.",
keywords = "bibliometric analysis, contested concept, social innovation, co-production",
author = "Noorseha Ayob and Simon Teasdale and Kylie Fagan",
note = "Not in REF policy scope Query to author re acceptance date. ET ^Author confirmed acceptance date by email on 19/11/19 ET ",
journal = "Journal of Social Policy",
Ayob, N, Teasdale, S & Fagan, K 2016, 'How social innovation "came to be": tracing the evolution of a contested concept', Journal of Social Policy, vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 635-653. https://doi.org/10.1017/S004727941600009X
How social innovation "came to be": tracing the evolution of a contested concept. / Ayob, Noorseha; Teasdale, Simon; Fagan, Kylie.
In: Journal of Social Policy, Vol. 45, No. 4, 10.2016, p. 635-653.
T1 - How social innovation "came to be": tracing the evolution of a contested concept
AU - Ayob, Noorseha
AU - Teasdale, Simon
AU - Fagan, Kylie
N1 - Not in REF policy scope Query to author re acceptance date. ET ^Author confirmed acceptance date by email on 19/11/19 ET
N2 - Social innovation is a contested concept with multiple meanings that have implications beyond academia. It is not a new term - its sociological heritage can be dated to the late nineteenth century. However, until the twenty-first century the concept was sparsely utilised, and, despite its current popularity among policy makers in Europe and the United States, remains largely ignored by social policy researchers. Through bibliometric analysis we identify the most influential articles on social innovation and explore how these have conceptualised the term. We show that over time social innovation has taken on a set of meanings far removed from its sociological roots. In particular we identify a weak tradition that sees social innovation as any increase in aggregate individual utility arising from an innovation, and a strong tradition that focuses on the process of collaboration between different groups and the restructuring of power relations. We conclude by outlining implications for social policy research.
AB - Social innovation is a contested concept with multiple meanings that have implications beyond academia. It is not a new term - its sociological heritage can be dated to the late nineteenth century. However, until the twenty-first century the concept was sparsely utilised, and, despite its current popularity among policy makers in Europe and the United States, remains largely ignored by social policy researchers. Through bibliometric analysis we identify the most influential articles on social innovation and explore how these have conceptualised the term. We show that over time social innovation has taken on a set of meanings far removed from its sociological roots. In particular we identify a weak tradition that sees social innovation as any increase in aggregate individual utility arising from an innovation, and a strong tradition that focuses on the process of collaboration between different groups and the restructuring of power relations. We conclude by outlining implications for social policy research.
KW - bibliometric analysis
KW - contested concept
KW - social innovation
KW - co-production
JO - Journal of Social Policy
JF - Journal of Social Policy
Ayob N, Teasdale S, Fagan K. How social innovation "came to be": tracing the evolution of a contested concept. Journal of Social Policy. 2016 Oct;45(4):635-653. Epub 2016 Mar 10. doi: 10.1017/S004727941600009X