Posted: March 2009 by Janel Smith

Recent global events have led many to question whether we have reached the threshold, or “tipping point”, of human ingenuity. In 2008 world temperatures reached record highs and oil prices climbed to new peaks. Around the globe persistent abject poverty persists, while increased energy consumption and demands for non-renewable resources accelerate climate change and intensify fears of scarcity. Moreover, the deepening of the “global” economic crisis threatens to cast a shadow over recent attention devoted toward sustainability. Sustainability, however, calls for long-term and sustained activity and the integration of economic, social and environmental action.

Recently while attending a conference in Vancouver entitled “The Many Faces of Sustainability” I was pleased to hear most of the presenters approach sustainability as a transformative and holistic concept, requiring innovative action across multiple sectors of society in efforts to realize systemic societal and/or organizational change. It is vital when speaking about sustainability to speak about the importance of innovation - harnessing human, social, physical, symbolic, cultural, and natural capital - to work across sectors and break down silos.

One presentation in particular caught my attention - “Harnessing the Power of Social Innovation”. Social Innovation (SI) suggests a state of continuous change; it is not a static concept that can be “arrived at” but rather it must be conceived of as an ongoing process of adaptation. Why is SI of interest to actors focused on sustainability one might ask? SI acts as a “third pillar” of sustainability, linking resiliency to timing and the dynamics of knowing when to scale up one’s activities in order to transform a system.

Social innovators (SIs), sometimes also called institutional entrepreneurs (IEs), are the key enablers of social innovation. They are actors who possess the capacity, knowledge, and connections to identify opportunities for scaling up, that can open up spaces and network with various actors both working within and attempting to influence the systems that one seeks to change. Identifying and forging partnerships with SIs or IEs involves careful analysis and identification of who is “linked in” and working to influence a particular system of interest, paying attention to “old adversaries” and relative “newcomers” working within or with an interest in the system who can potentially become “allies”. This requires institutional/ organizational resilience, inter/intra-organizational collaboration, an awareness of the nature of complex adaptive systems and of course social innovation. This for me is really the essence of solidarity networks (SNs).

The notion of solidarity networks attempts to provide an answer to the question: How can we strengthen efforts to build and shape the kinds of societal and organizational systems and communities we want? Solidarity networks can be seen as animators of sustainability in that they expand the pie by enabling one to capitalize on the social innovation existing within one’s own networks and the networks of one’s “allies”, thus, strengthening institutional and organizational resilience and adaptability. SNs enable organizational entities to scale up quickly when the timing is right through drawing on an expanded pool of potential “allies”. They open up opportunities for inter/intra-organizational collaboration and facilitate linkages between various actors, connecting them through networks of mutual support and action. In this way, diverse individuals, organizations and movements with similar underlying interests can come together to inform one another’s policy and practice and develop knowledge-sharing networks that are collaborative and rooted in a common quest for transformation. We should ask ourselves what and who do we have that we are not currently utilizing? We should look for and tap into new “allies”, though they may not always be apparent. In order to effect change we need to rethink advocacy; we need new strategies that make use of creativity, invention and innovation.

Please feel free to contact me to explore further this concept of “Solidarity Networks as Animators of Sustainability”?