This research area is focused on the nature of intentional, collaborative work that creatively transforms social-ecological systems across multiple scales. We focus on the development of products, processes, initiatives, or organizations that:
- Create social value through both means and ends; and
- Reconfigure institutionalized rules, values, beliefs, or relational patterns.
We see emerging economies as especially fertile places to explore these themes. Because of their complexity, uncertainty, and inequality, emerging economies are often at the forefront of incubating practices that challenge current social paradigms. We are particularly interested in the organizational and network dynamics of social innovation and in the role that inter-organizational, cross-sector, and cross-scale relationships may play in developing and embedding solutions to wicked problems. GSB researchers currently explore these questions via a variety of topics and contexts, including health care, education, food security, climate change, impact investing, the sociology of finance, social entrepreneurship, supply chain innovation, and inclusive innovation.
