Paper short abstract:

Civic innovation is a novel, but also complex concept. It has to be unpacked to grasp why it has this rich value-added to analyzing social transformation at multiple levels. The paper introduces a new edited volume on civic innovation and examines three recent examples of social transformation.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the meaning of the concept 'civic innovation' and serves and an introduction to the panel on 'Civic innovation and social transformation'. Civic innovation is about focusing on what is positive, creative and imaginative in the face of a world that seems beset by crisis narratives. As development researchers we see the mainstream development community responding with difficulty to these crisis narratives - awkwardly speaking of the failure of the Millennium Development Goals while setting up a new set of Sustainable Development Goals. Underlining these discussions are deep concerns about the viability of the development project in the new conditions of today. In exploring the term civic innovation we suggest this helps us to give a useful alternative to overwhelming crisis narratives. We are not looking for a new theory and practice that will lead to a grand transformation of neoliberal capitalism but rather at how to build a mosaic of responses by looking at what is happening on the ground where people are living the contradictions of development. We argue that we need to question pre-determined ideas of what measures to take and go beyond universal policy solutions, in order to look with openness at the actions on the ground. This also means going beyond the strictures of development aid and its logics. The paper examines the meaning of civic innovation by highlighting three recent examples: the Fair Trade moment, feminist movements at Tahrir Square, and Occupy Wall Street.