Exploring Civic Innovation for Social and Economic Transformation reflects the increasingly holistic approach to development in terms of both teaching and research, and illustrates how civic innovation happens everywhere; at the global and institutional level as well as in communities and for individuals. Combining nuanced theory with rich empirical examples, this book defines the dynamic and complex process of civic innovation as the multiple economic, political and social processes where peoples, organizations, movements and ideas are shaping struggles for global justice on the interface of capitalism.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction: Giving meaning to Civic Innovation

Kees Biekart, Wendy Harcourt and Peter Knorringa

Chapter 2 The Institutional Foundations of Civic Innovation

Georgina Gomez and Holly Ritchie

Chapter 3 Change actors and civic innovators: who triggers change? Systematizing the role of interlocutors in civic innovation processes

Alan Fowler

Chapter 4 Can Consultants be Civic Innovators? Exploring their Roles as Auditors and Allies

Sylvia I. Bergh and Kees Biekart

Chapter 5 Between State, Market and Civil Society: What constitutes the social in social entrepreneurship?

A.H.J. (Bert) Helmsing

Chapter 6 Civic Innovation in Value Chains: Towards Workers as Agents in Non-governmental Labour Regulation

Karin Astrid Siegmann, Jeroen Merk and Peter Knorringa

Chapter 7 Civic Innovation by Family Farmers in the Face of Global Value Chain Inclusion: Between Material Conditions and Imagined Futures

Lee Pegler and Wanessa Marques Silva

Chapter 8 Exploring embodiment and intersectionality in transnational feminist activist research

Wendy Harcourt, Rosalba Icaza and Virginia Vargas

Chapter 9 Towards new perspectives on labour precarity and decent work of sex workers

Silke Heumann, Karin Astrid Siegmann and Empower Foundation

Chapter 10 Resistance and Hope: youth responding to the economic crisis in Southern Europe

Paulina (Sat) Trejo-Mendez, Paula Sánchez de la Blanca, Laura Santamaría Buitrago, Emma Claire Sardoni and Guilia Simula with Wendy Harcourt

Chapter 11 Civic Activism and Social Accountability: a Quantitative Approach

Anderson Macedo de Jesus and Irene van Staveren

Chapter 12 Minding the gap between activism and academia - or bridging it? Reflections on how to do civic innovation research

Kees Biekart and Karin Astrid Siegmann

Chapter 13 Conclusion: Moving agendas forward

Kees Biekart, Wendy Harcourt and Peter Knorringa

Kees Biekart is Associate Professor of Political Sociology at the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Wendy Harcourt is Associate Professor in Critical Development and Feminist Studies at the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Peter Knorringa is Professor of Private Sector and Development at the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.