Barefoot and connected

Yes, it sounds easy to say that I will be researching processes of innovation within the social economy. As long as you believe that the social economy is a distinct place and that innovation does occur in it, it is relatively straightforward.

The topic gets a bit more complicated when you look at the vast literature on innovation and you realise that everything, from drivers to barriers and ways of overcoming them, has been well studied in both the private and the public sectors, but not here, in this middle, hybrid space that I, following Ash Amin, Bridge and others, call the social economy. Or when you encounter the definitional confussion sorrounding SEs...(some of my colleagues and friends have discussed it brilliantly!!!:
http://www.socialedge.org/discussions/social-entrepreneurship/death-by-definitions

Everything gets blurry or brighter (up to you!) when you open up another window of opportunity and decide to explore the impact of networks and relationships in the innovation process.

Social capital, networks, innovation, social innovation, peer learning, social economy, community enterprises..can my research topics/key themes be more appealing or interesting? I am feeling quite positive right now.

But going back to my original research questions.. I will try to understand the processes by which social enterprises innovate, the mechanisms, the critical incidents...My research question is a how question...

You might be wondering how, precisely, will I do this.

Well, mainly, through an ethnographic study. I will be observing innovative community enterprises in their daily functions for a sustained period of time. By collaborating with some, volunteering at others and interviewing a handful of CEOs, I hope to be able to observe/learn the subtleties of the innovation process, the nuances, its details.

Concomitantly I'll continue to work as a freelance SE advisor with some amazing community enterprises. One of them lacks all the relevant networks to get off the ground despite their amazing resilience and cohesion. The other one is way beyond my comfort zone, which I find very exciting. I usually gain very valuable knowledge from my clients.

Finally, I will have drinks once a month with fellow advisors, entrepreneurs and supporters to gauge their views under the influence of alcohol. I will be piggybacking somebody else's good idea.

I am barefoot as you can see. I have nothing but way too much theoretical information and doubts about where to start. But I am also well connected. To give you some examples: I have personal acquantainces working in all the key/relevant organisations within the social economy infrastructure, including CSR departments within conventional companies. They will probably tell me one or two things about their organisations or point me in the direction of good case studies. I give advice to programmes and social enteprises that are able to stand on their feet with dignity. I deliver training for some of the established support providers. I have worked (and therefore still have good connections) in the fields of women, migrants and housing. I have been recently invited to join two very innovative consultancy firms and I am in touch with the more progressive thinkers.

Something good must come out of this. Or at least that's what I want to believe on the 27th of December, listening to Led Zepellin while everybody else sleeps .