新作坊 Humanity Innovation and Social Practice

Are Social Innovation Paradigms Incommensurable? (社會創新的諸多典範沒有公約數嗎？)

摘要：

This paper calls attention to the problematic use of the concept of social innovation which remains undefined despite its proliferation throughout academic and policy discourses. Extant research has thus far failed to capture the sociopolitical contentions which surround social innovation. This paper therefore draws upon the work of Thomas Kuhn and conducts a paradigmatic analysis of the field of social innovation which identifies two emerging schools: one technocratic, the other democratic. The paper identifies some of the key thinkers in each paradigm and explains how the struggle between these two paradigms reveals itself to be part of a broader conflict between neoliberalism and it opponents and concludes by arguing that future research focused upon local contextualised struggles will reveal which paradigm is in the ascendancy.

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本文呼籲重視社會創新概念的用法問題。儘管社會創新的概念在整個學術和政策討論均蓬勃發展，但其定義仍不甚明確。 作者指出，目前現有的研究，均無法捕捉到圍繞著社會創新的政治社會學爭議。 因此，本文使用湯瑪斯孔恩（Thomas Kuhn）的典範概念，對社會創新領域進行了典範的分析，以此確定了兩種正興起的學派：一是技術官僚的，另一是民主學派。 本文指出這兩種典範中的各自一些關鍵的學者，並解釋了這兩種典範的鬥爭可理解為新自由主義與其反對者的廣泛衝突的一部分。並在結論的部分指出，未來的研究需著重於在地脈絡的衝突，將可以揭示哪種典範居於優勢地位。