Social innovation and entrepreneurship in civil society organizations

The paper explores why and how the communicative interactions among members of civil society organizations aiming life quality improvements may simultaneously generate social and economic value and through social... [ view full abstract ]

The paper explores why and how the communicative interactions among members of civil society organizations aiming life quality improvements may simultaneously generate social and economic value and through social entrepreneurship facilitates also social change and agency. The study analyses five clusters of 21 case-communities as characteristic examples of the civil society organizations’ broad array. These exhibit twofold social innovation as they are private organizations which serve public aims through the members’ voluntary interactions and bring about cooperation into competitive environments.

The community members’ participation in and contribution to cooperative efforts enable to fulfil their needs in multiple dimensions what in turn regenerates their motivation to cooperate independently from the actual efforts’ outcome. The volunteers within the researched communities follow asymmetric and asynchronous patterns of reciprocity, and multi-party and open ended mutuality by de-coupling, unbundling fulfilment of the contributors’ needs and voluntary contributions. This pattern allows combining short term personal and team needs with broader and longer term, also social interests. Consequently, the civil society organizations enact their members’ self-interest, but overcome and prevent Homo economicus approach generating dominance seeking competition. Instead the volunteers’ self-organizing cooperation creates the civil society organizations’ transformational dynamism, their capability to bring about change, carry out social innovation and agency. Therefore the paper discusses how can Homo economicus follow its self-interest and simultaneously act as ‘person in community’? To put it another way: why and how voluntary cooperation may re-emerge and sustain in competitive and dominance seeking environment(s)? 

The study analyses communities by shedding light on multi-dimensional, feed backing transformational impacts which their dynamism generates. Their transformational dynamism interplays with changes in work and competition, value creation and resourcing - i.e. the members’ activities. It feeds back with institutional changes and alterations in power relations - i.e. transforms relationships. Brings about the volunteers’ empowering individuation - i.e. generates personal ‘transcendence’. As a consequence the communities’ transformational dynamism affects simultaneously (i) the individual community members, (ii) the character and dynamism of cooperative interactions, (iii) the very communities and (iv.) their broader environment.

The volunteers socialize through interactions which by enabling meeting higher level needs including self-fulfilment, self-activation and self-transcendence re-generate their enhanced motivation to collaborate. The institutional twin-primacy of non-zero-sum approach and interdependence, and the “modularity of contributions” (Benkler, 2011) enable through interactions simultaneously enact and share resources. The volunteers extensively capitalize on soft resources similar to creativity, information, knowledge, flow experience, relational, emotional, psychological, and cognitive energies which are non-depletable and non-rivalrous therefore multipliable and self-multiplying. The horizontal and decentralized patterns and the symbiotic capability co-creation facilitate to improve the effectiveness of collective resourcing, extend and upgrade the resource base.

The volunteers’ collaborative interactions aiming to improve life quality aggregate into self-organizing emergence of communities unfolding without central planning or coordination by enabling to “organize without organization”(Shirky, 2008). The self-organizing enables to upgrade the complexity of cooperative efforts without generating enhanced organizational hierarchies. This constellation interplays with improvements in resourcing, catalyses and capitalizes on the commons’ growing innovativeness. The commoners’ self-communication creates increasing awareness of interdependence and being ‘persons in community’, feeds back with enhanced collective learning and brings about enhanced openness and interest toward issues which do not belong to primary tasks of a particular community. Consequently, the volunteers’ cooperative efforts interplay with individual, team, and social consciousness, generate readiness to contribute to fulfilment of broader, societal needs through enhanced social entrepreneurship, innovation and agency.  

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