Decolonizing Social Innovation for Global Development

Abstract

Systemic barriers inherited from colonialism—read coloniality—block equitable access to resources and diminishes the agency of non-hegemonic actors in the world today. In the area of social innovation, coloniality limits the agency of formerly colonized and non-hegemonic groups engaging in social innovation projects and systems. Overall, this undermines effective collaborations between actors, and in the global development sector, the very aim of its work. Research is needed to deconstruct power dynamics linked to coloniality in the social innovation for development (SI4D) sector to create more effective collaborations and inclusive social innovation processes and systems. Today, in the global development sector, uncritical approaches to social innovation support the maintenance of power asymmetries linked to coloniality by confirming blind spots (even where there may be good intentions) and failing to focus on and address the persistent inequities that are animated in their approaches and practices. By providing insights into how coloniality manifests through social innovation processes, this thesis provides new insights into where power asymmetries and imbalances continue to exist, and what some social innovation actors are doing to diminish and eradicate them; in essence, we learn about how social innovation activism is engaging in decolonizing movements to transform coloniality-shaped innovation landscapes. Specifically, this critical qualitative research explores how social innovation actors are working to eradicate those barriers—read decolonizing social innovation—by going beyond neoliberal models, market outcomes, and funder-metrics to integrate global social justice into how they engage and reshape social innovation systems, practices, and its discourse. Also, this research makes a case for why inclusive innovation is not a euphemism for decolonizing social innovation. Decolonizing social innovation for global development prioritizes replacing a saviorhood approach to social innovation with a solidarity-approach as the latter can deliver not only social impact but also diminish systemic oppression both internally and externally. By changing the nature of engagement between actors, decolonizing approaches to social innovation can foster deeper collaborations, more reciprocal relationships, and more empowering outcomes for non-hegemonic groups. This decolonizing approach to social innovation can transform opportunity structures to affect social transformations that are invested in global social justice.