An Extended Social Grid Model for the Study of Marginalization Processes and Social Innovation

The Creating Economic Space for Social Innovation (CRESSI) project focuses on one over-arching research objective: to develop a novel theoretical framework better to understand the economic underpinnings of marginalization and social innovation in the European Union. Specifically, this project will inform future EU policy making in two ways: by means of a detailed analysis of how socio-economic structures marginalize vulnerable populations; by means of an exploration of the potential role of social innovation as an institutional change phenomenon to address such structures. An important conceptual component is drawn from the work of Jens Beckert and his Social Grid Model (2010). This research develops an Extended Social Grid Model that allows CRESSI to explore the structural issues that cause and reproduce marginalization. However, it needs to be stressed at the outset that the intention of this model – and the wider framework within which it sits – is to provide a mode of thinking to inform subsequent analysis and policy development rather than to represent a thorough commentary on individual thinkers and their schools of thought. The Social Grid model and the wider CRESSI framework operate, therefore, as theoretical orientations for the project as a whole: as a result, the exposition here is only the first of what are likely to be several iterations as the project develops. Extending this model, CRESSI suggests that a social grid, at the macro-level or social-environmental level of structures, is enacted via contingent sources of power to affect (positively or negatively) the individual’s ability to realize her own capabilities. Finally, the model allows social innovation to be seen as a set of processes and interventions that can disruptively and incrementally alter one or more of the three social forces within a particular social grid, the dynamics across the social forces and, potentially, the power sources that structure it in a given historical context to reduce the marginalization of certain populations. Moreover, this may also include processes that empower the marginalized to become change agents (or institutional entrepreneurs) in terms of the forces and structures that cause their own marginalization. This paper explores Beckert’s model and extends it drawing on two other key sets of theories around power (Michael Mann) and capabilities (Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum) that constitute the overall analytic framework for CRESSI and which are discussed in more detailed elsewhere in the CRESSI project. Where appropriate we reference ideas from CRESSI working papers so as to point to further discussion as well as some of the inspirations and ideas for this extended social grid models

How Can Resilience Theory Inform Social Innovation for the Marginalized?

Deliverable D1.1: Report on Institutions, Social Innovation & System Dynamics from the Perspective of the Marginalise

Visions need accounts : essays on political perception and action in a statistical age

Central planners and citizens, conservatives and reformers, 19th-century liberal statisticians and today's advocates of sustainable development all draw on statistics for the elaboration and communication of political visions. Yet, this striking phenomenon has so far largely escaped the attention of political philosophers in the English-speaking world. As politics has come to be informed and shaped by statistics, there is a need to scrutinize omnipresent statistical accounts for their political vision. Taking as its political vision the idea of society as a fair system of co-operation, this thesis offers a series of essays towards a political philosophy of statistics. To this end, the thesis retrieves the statistical macro-scopic point of view in the vision of co-operation as spelled out by John Rawls and contrasts this uptake of statistics with the one in Martin Heidegger's phenomenology of everydayness. The goal is to make explicit the implicit role of statistics in the philosophical reflection of these thinkers. This thesis then argues for the place of statistics in a system of co-operation in terms of accountability institutions. It also engages the contemporary political issue of sustainable development, which has seen the rapid development and use of statistics. It argues that the Index for Sustainable Development is not a measure of sustainable development, but rather a debunking index. As such, it is a stepping stone for more systematic accounts, such as the eco-space proposal. For these proposals to make a positive contribution to sustainable development, they must be situated within a vision of large-scale political society

Modeling and frequency domain analysis of nonlinear compliant joints for a passive dynamic swimmer

In this paper we present the study of the mathematical model of a real life joint used in an underwater robotic fish. Fluid-structure interaction is utterly simplified and the motion of the joint is approximated by D\"uffing's equation. We compare the quality of analytical harmonic solutions previously reported, with the input-output relation obtained via truncated Volterra series expansion. Comparisons show a trade-off between accuracy and flexibility of the methods. The methods are discussed in detail in order to facilitate reproduction of our results. The approach presented herein can be used to verify results in nonlinear resonance applications and in the design of bio-inspired compliant robots that exploit passive properties of their dynamics. We focus on the potential use of this type of joint for energy extraction from environmental sources, in this case a K\'arm\'an vortex street shed by an obstacle in a flow. Open challenges and questions are mentioned throughout the document.Comment: 12 p, 5 fig, work in progress, collaborative wor

Gemeinsam sind wir groß

Nur ein wachsendes Unternehmen ist ein gutes Unternehmen? Social Entrepreneurs sehen das anders und zeigen, was denkbar ist, wenn die eigene Größe keine Rolle spielt: Was erreichen wir mit anderen und für andere

Special Issue of the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities

CRESSI Deliverable 8.