242
M. Hadeid et al.
in Europe as a lever for territorial development. At a time when economic and social
models are being undermined by the shocks of climate change, addressing unmet
social needs is a particular challenge. According to the CSESS
3 , “there is a tremendous inventiveness on the part of citizens, civil society actors and companies that only
needs a little favourable ground to grow, develop and provide significant responses
to the main societal challenges: increased impoverishment of the population, limitation of energy resources, digital divide, suppression of public services in rural areas,
ageing population, isolation of the elderly, increased demand for organic food…
These challenges are reflected in the need for innovative solutions in terms of energy,
accommodation, mobility, etc. On all these subjects and many others, the collective
imagination is essential to bring out new responses in a context of scarce public
funding.” The CSESS has proposed a fulsome definition of “social technologies”
that can be applied to any country in the world: the development of new responses
to new or insufficiently- met social needs under current market and social policy
conditions, involving the participation and cooperation of all actors concerned, in
particular the users. These innovations concern both the product or service, as well
as the mode of organization and distribution, in broad areas such as aging, early
childhood, housing, health, the fight against poverty, exclusion, discrimination, etc.
The stages of social process development consist of emergence, experimentation,
dissemination and evaluation. This desire to integrate social technologies into the
development process of the territories is not exclusive to France—the entire European
Community supports it. In a speech to the European Parliament, the President of the
European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, made it clear that innovation in general
and social innovation in particular should be recognized as factors for sustainable
growth, job creation and strengthening the competitiveness of the territories.
Several doctoral theses have also applied the concept of social needs, for example,
in France (Patureau 2010) and on the water in Brazil (Coutinho 2015). Patureau
(2010) uses social technology as a means to address major social issues: reduce
poverty and fight exclusion, protect the environment, promote the integration of
people with disabilities, enable young people to integrate professional and civic
life, combat unemployment, manage an aging population, support the education and
development of children, etc. In other words, the social technology movement is
the recognition that neither government policy nor the market alone can provide
complete solutions to big societal challenges. Coutinho, for example, studies the
semi-arid region of Paraïba, Brazil. After the failure of efforts by the Brazilian government to mitigate inequalities in access to the water supply through the construction of dams and large capacity reservoirs, various civil society networks implemented a new development model based on the introduction of social technologies
for access to water using tanks, stone reservoirs (reservoirs built on impermeable
outcrops) and underground dams. The deployment of these techniques has resulted
in a social network that has transformed the spaces in rural Paraíba. Another example
is the use of social technologies to enable the local population to manage their new
3 CSESS: Higher Council of Social Economy and Solidarity in France.
M. Hadeid et al.
in Europe as a lever for territorial development. At a time when economic and social
models are being undermined by the shocks of climate change, addressing unmet
social needs is a particular challenge. According to the CSESS
3 , “there is a tremendous inventiveness on the part of citizens, civil society actors and companies that only
needs a little favourable ground to grow, develop and provide significant responses
to the main societal challenges: increased impoverishment of the population, limitation of energy resources, digital divide, suppression of public services in rural areas,
ageing population, isolation of the elderly, increased demand for organic food…
These challenges are reflected in the need for innovative solutions in terms of energy,
accommodation, mobility, etc. On all these subjects and many others, the collective
imagination is essential to bring out new responses in a context of scarce public
funding.” The CSESS has proposed a fulsome definition of “social technologies”
that can be applied to any country in the world: the development of new responses
to new or insufficiently- met social needs under current market and social policy
conditions, involving the participation and cooperation of all actors concerned, in
particular the users. These innovations concern both the product or service, as well
as the mode of organization and distribution, in broad areas such as aging, early
childhood, housing, health, the fight against poverty, exclusion, discrimination, etc.
The stages of social process development consist of emergence, experimentation,
dissemination and evaluation. This desire to integrate social technologies into the
development process of the territories is not exclusive to France—the entire European
Community supports it. In a speech to the European Parliament, the President of the
European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, made it clear that innovation in general
and social innovation in particular should be recognized as factors for sustainable
growth, job creation and strengthening the competitiveness of the territories.
Several doctoral theses have also applied the concept of social needs, for example,
in France (Patureau 2010) and on the water in Brazil (Coutinho 2015). Patureau
(2010) uses social technology as a means to address major social issues: reduce
poverty and fight exclusion, protect the environment, promote the integration of
people with disabilities, enable young people to integrate professional and civic
life, combat unemployment, manage an aging population, support the education and
development of children, etc. In other words, the social technology movement is
the recognition that neither government policy nor the market alone can provide
complete solutions to big societal challenges. Coutinho, for example, studies the
semi-arid region of Paraïba, Brazil. After the failure of efforts by the Brazilian government to mitigate inequalities in access to the water supply through the construction of dams and large capacity reservoirs, various civil society networks implemented a new development model based on the introduction of social technologies
for access to water using tanks, stone reservoirs (reservoirs built on impermeable
outcrops) and underground dams. The deployment of these techniques has resulted
in a social network that has transformed the spaces in rural Paraíba. Another example
is the use of social technologies to enable the local population to manage their new
3 CSESS: Higher Council of Social Economy and Solidarity in France.