Diffused social enterprise and active welfare

Changing unsustainable patterns of consumption and production plays a paramount role in achieving global sustainable development goals. This has been made explicitly clear in recent years by considerable research, as well as through international agreements and processes. For instance, The Johannesburg

It is often said in policy circles that sustainable consumption and sustainable production are two sides of the same coin, where the figurative coin itself is sustainable development. In practice, sustainable consumption and production are treated quite separately. On the production side, the focus is very much about cleaner technologies, sustainable product-service systems and eco-efficiency. On the consumption side, issues such consumer lifestyles and ethical purchasing come to the forefront. This separation is often justifiable in practical terms, but as a consequence, little attention is paid to instances where the boundaries between producer and consumer are not so clearly defined. In a context where there is a pressing need for new models of production and consumption, some research and policy communities are blurring traditional boundaries by examining how production and consumption systems are linking up, as was the case in a recent initiative entitled Emerging User Demands (EMUDE).

This article explores some of the key outcomes of the action and considers the implications for Europe's sustainability agenda.

About EMUDE

EMUDE is a Specific Support Action (SSA) which was financed by the European Commission Directorate Research unit Industrial technologies/Production Processes.

A key to enabling consumers to live up to their responsibilities in sustainable consumption is to ensure that sustainable options for products and services are accessible in the marketplace. Considering consumer behaviours and motivations when differentiating their consumption choices are critical factors that must be accounted for when sustainable options are conceived. For this reason, and in an effort to consider how sustainable products and services could be better conceptualised and delivered to consumers, the EMUDE programme took a bottom-up approach and started with consumers themselves. In doing so, it deviated from the conventional pattern of focussing on producers when attempting to better understand sustainable production systems.

The programme began by observing a phenomenon of social innovation: the emergence in Europe of groups of active, enterprising people inventing and implementing original ways of dealing with everyday problems. Such problems ranged widely from childcare and care of the elderly to getting hold of organic food; from looking after green spaces to alternative means of transport; from building new solidarity networks to the creation of new forms of housing and shared facilities and services. The initial hypotheses within EMUDE was that these cases of social innovation presented promising signals of environmental and social sustainability.2 Moreover it is suggested that these signals could point a new direction for technological and market research and innovation geared towards improved sustainability.

The EMUDE methodology

EMUDE was implemented via a large consortium of partners including academic and research institutions, design schools, inter-governmental bodies and international civil society actors.3 The consortium, coordinated by the Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI) aimed to facilitate a Virtuous cycle' within a framework of on-going and sometimes contradictory social learning process, geared towards a sustainable system of production and consumption. More precisely, the key components of EMUDE can be summarised below:

* Society emits some weak but promising signals of innovation; in our case, sustainable behaviours and promising bottom-up innovation.

* These promising signals are detected through the collection of the promising cases via design schools across Europe, who act as antennas.

* Promising signals are reinforced, where promising cases are evaluated by consortium partners along sustainability dimensions, and strategies to improve their visibility are considered.

* Reinforced signals are re-emitted whereby EMUDE outputs are disseminated and targeted to well-defined stakeholders, decision makers and opinion leaders.

* Social evolution is re-oriented, whereby policy strategies and final users demands are informed/ inspired/influenced by proposed scenarios and roadmaps that point to the achievement of sustainable production and consumption systems.

In this way more than 100 cases were gathered. The cases also act as a communicative instrument proposing a vast array of good practices that show how it is already possible for consumers to live in a more sustainable way. To facilitate this function, the cases have been presented in a highly communicative format and are freely accessible.4

The cases were qualitatively evaluated considering social, environmental, economic and technological criteria. This assessment yielded 56 particularly significant cases, which were selected for further analysis and formed the basic framework from which subsequent outputs were developed. In addition, technological roadmaps for policy makers outlining technological demands that could help to improve and mainstream the sustainable behaviours observed in the promising cases were also developed.

Rather than a cursory glance at a large number of cases, two of the most promising cases are outlined to exemplify the type of social innovation and sustainability impacts this article discusses.

The key findings

While the solutions themselves (eco-friendly housing, community gardens, and so on) are not entirely new, what is innovative is how and why these solutions are being developed and implemerited. An analysis of these cases gives promising, but weak, signals5 and reveals some interesting observations:

* Confirmation of the initial hypothesis that the cases of social innovation presented promising signals of environmental and social sustainability.

* An emergence of creative communities6 across Europe. It emerged from the study that there exists a dynamic new form of creativity: a diffused creativity put co-operatively into action by 'non-specialised' people, which takes shape as a significant though scarcely studied expression of contemporary society. It would appear legitimate to define these groups of enterprising people as creative communities: groups of people who invent sustainable ways of living.7 These signals of social creativity in response to every-day sustainability challenges also show that consumers are not waiting for the government or the market to provide the answers to meeting their own and their community's needs. This is clear from the cases of community action on both Utrecht and Palaiseau noted above.

* Through a series of deeper observations on creative communities, particular focus has been put on the social and environmental value of these cases and the way they are taking shape as a new generation of social enterprise.8 Once mature, this type of enterprise can be named as diffused social enterprise (DSE). Here, the term 'diffused enterprise' indicates consumers (or users of a product or service) organise themselves to obtain the results they are directly interested in. They do so by actively seeking to resolve their problems. Most of DSE produce a side effect of (more or less deliberately) reinforcing the social fabric and improving local environmental quality. In the Palaiseau case, this included for example, accelerating a shift to organic agriculture.

* Creative communities and DSE they can give rise to, could bring a notable contribution to welfare issues. In face of the growing demand for welfare and its emerging crisis in Europe, creative communities point to a possibility of a new path. They put forward a different idea of welfare, active welfare9 where people involved take direct part in achieving the results they want. This is a notion of welfare that pervades daily life and responds to emerging needs of European consumers for well-being and citizenship. Within this concept of active welfare, the role of public bodies is to favour the balanced development of citizens' ability to 'be enterprising', and to 'produce sociality'.

Moreover, since those directly involved become an active part in planning and operationalising solutions (either via products or services) they are also able to obtain the desired results in the way that is most economical and closest to their ever more changing and variegated needs. The possible connection between the emerging phenomenon of creative communities and the problems of welfare and social cohesion is perhaps one of the most meaningful outcomes of the EMUDE process.

Policy implications

The EMUDE programme results suggest that the creative communities and the diffused social enterprise can become core elements of an active civil society with a better quality of life and enhanced chances for sustainable economic development. This means that depending on the success of the new ideas of welfare and local development they propose, new markets will emerge for a new generation of products and services: products and services (and product and service systems) specifically conceived and developed to promote and support creative communities and DSE.

Building on this suggestion, the ensuing policy agenda articulated by the EMUDE consortium reflected on two main questions:

* How can creative communities and DSE support the exiting European policy agenda?

* What kind of policy agenda is suitable to support creative communities and DSE?

In particular, the consortium explored both these aspects with respect to research policy in the realm of industrial technologies. In doing so, the work of the programme sought to bridge consumer demands with production elements.

DSE for the policy agenda

The insights from the EMUDE research indicate that a number of benefits can be expected from the emergence of DSE and that, on average, DSE initiatives and their implications are well in line with the current agenda of European policy makers.

This is particularly true for four policy arenas that form a core part of the European Community policy objectives:

* Innovation capability in knowledge-based economy.

* Decoupling of economic growth and environmental impact.

* Social cohesion.

* Sustainable welfare; new modes of governance.

Innovation capability

A crucial precondition for the successful transition towards a knowledge intensive economy is the ability of all actors of the innovation system10 to learn and react to change. As innovation studies have long been pointing out, it is the quality of the whole system of innovation and no longer the excellence of single elements that determines success within a knowledge-based economy. Here, DSE could become a facilitator of transition towards knowledge intensive economy acting as an interface between innovators and users enabling joint learning and customising of innovation. Furthermore it could help companies to orient their innovation activities towards future demands

The 'social entrepreneurs' who are promoting and managing DSE initiatives will be engaged in a continuous learning process on how to leverage between diverse demands with people from a high diversity of backgrounds. DSE fosters vital competencies required for knowledge workers and fits into the European Union (EU) policy agenda aiming to build up human resources needed for a knowledge-based economy.

Decoupling

To achieve a real breakthrough towards decoupling of economic growth and environmental impact new patterns of production and consumption are required. This implies not only significant improvements in production technologies but in many cases radical transformation involving both social and technological innovation at the same time. However, it is difficult for policy to intervene into this complex co-evolutionary process. One possible approach is to create protected spaces where socio-technical experimenting and learning among users and developers of technologies can take place.11

DSE, as it involves communities of innovative users ready to try out new ways of doing things, has a high potential to provide such spaces where new types of product service systems, new forms of using products but also new forms of achieving quality of life with immaterial factors can mature. Thus, environmental policy can use DSE to initiate the necessary learning processes for companies and other stakeholders that could otherwise not take place. DSE initiatives, by functioning as a 'niches of change', can become strong enablers of socio-technical transition towards decoupling of economic growth and environmental impact.

Social cohesion

Social cohesion is one of the prime objectives of EU, as laid down in the Lisbon strategy and emphasised in the Sustainable Development Strategy. In this perspective the concept of 'active welfare society', as a positive vision for the European welfare system, has increasingly been discussed, intending an intelligent active state where public authorities continue to play a key role but where also citizens participate in an active way, exerting their citizenship.

The emergence of DSE might offer an entry point into such a society, as they point to a new kind of active engagement of people in solving their own problems together with others. Not only because functions that are part of the welfare realm (such as care of the elderly and children) form a substantial part of its activities, but also because DSE might offer an alternative pathway for social inclusion beyond classic employment schemes.

The DSE model could provide the core elements of an 'active welfare society', that is, a society better suited to address the enormous future challenges to our welfare systems.

New modes of governance

The White Paper on European Governance for the EU12 defines the main principles of governance as: openness, participation, accountability, effectiveness and coherence. In a 2003 report from the Commission13, the discussion on European governance has also included democratic legitimacy and subsidiary as other important principles. However, the success of such concepts relies heavily on citizens becoming active and exerting their citizenship to engage in open governance processes.

DSE initiatives are indications of an active civil society where this is the case. As the scenario of the 'diffused social enterprise society' clearly indicates, DSE is likely to become, as a whole, a major actor within such a system of open and participatory governance. In sum, DSE is part of the social fabric needed for the concept of open governance to succeed.

Policy agenda for DSE

Policy action could create a pathway from weak signals of creative communities towards an active civil society with a wide range of diffused social enterprises finally leading to a society that incorporates the principle of sustainability in its social, environmental and economic dimension. To enhance this strategic perspective the EMUDE consortium introduces the concept of an enabling platforms and enabling framework.

Enabling framework

Socio-economic conditions supporting the diffused social enterprise transition pathway outlined above includes the three elements of participatory governance, an enabling work environment and a supportive legal framework.

* Participatory governance: social enterprise will create new social and physical spaces. When these spaces are shared with government actors and include issues of governance, DSE could facilitate the active engagement of civil society on governance platforms.

* Enabling working environment: to be able to participate in DSE, new possibilities are needed to have the possibility to flexibly shape their engagement into working life according to their needs. New possibilities are needed to switch between different levels of engagement in working life, community life and private life as well as training and education phases without putting at risk workplace security.

* Supportive legal framework: there should be a legal and economic framework that accommodates DSE activities. In fact, they raise questions that have to be discussed and solved at two levels: the positive changes in the financial support, taxation and juridical matters that have to be done in order to open up for bottom-up initiatives; and the nature of the legal and economic 'grey' zone where many of the initiatives promoted by DSE operate (in fact, the same tolerance that could be considered as necessary for some of DSE initiatives could also be seized by 'illegitimate' actors). New legislations and economic policies related to: use of public spaces; working at home; family companies; new forms of collective ways of living. New kind of taxes related to: alternative economies (where exchange of labour replaces conventional money systems) and new cooperatives (where individuals are treated as members not as customers).

Enabling platforms

Enabling platforms encompass supportive infrastructure containing elements from different realms (technologies, policies...) that would help DSE to flourish. They include a number of options such as citizens agencies, multi-user products and complementary product service systems. These are briefly outlined below:

* Citizen's agencies are meant to act as catalysts for DSE initiatives to begin but also as a facilitator for existing ones to grow, multiply and flourish. Instead of searching for solutions for various demands such as spaces, people, equipment, and so on, in negotiation with various governmental and non governmental actors, the citizens agency would provide the first point to contact for people to embark on a diffused social enterprise.

* Collective spaces are facilities that can be used by communities for mixed public-private functions could address an emerging user demand for space and shelter. Collective spaces are not completely public but jointly managed by a group of people either living closely together or driven by a common interest. A number of the solution ideas found in the EMUDE cases in different realms rely on the availability of such spaces for their realisation.

* Connecting platforms connect people to people, people to products and services, and even products and services to products and services is a very important demand within DSE. The connecting platform consists of technological innovations and policy measures to offer the possibility to fulfil these demands. Policy options include innovation opportunities arising from the increased interactions and orientation of technological innovation towards the local scale.

* Multi-Use(r) products allow for various forms of shared use. Such products address the emerging user demands for sharing, synchronising, personalising, payment, tracking and tracing and, depending on how much private information is needed to fulfil these demands also the demand for guarantees of privacy. They are relevant enablers in many of the solution ideas apparent in the EMUDE cases. Policy opportunities include orienting technological innovation to societal needs that will become even more urgent in the future, improving resource efficiency and lowering environmental impact through more sustainable consumption patterns (use intensification, collective use)

* Semi-professional equipment is used in a non professional environment often even in private spaces to provide a service for a larger group of people. A number of the EMUDE cases are characterised by this type of situation. The challenge is to have products that fit into this environment which lacks many of the preconditions of professional environment such as ample space, provision for safety, waste disposal, and so on. Policy measures could include development of guidelines for safe semi-professional equipment and environmental friendly equipment dedicated for social enterprises.

* Complementary product service systems are professional product service systems specifically designed by companies to complement social enterprise activities. For instance: flexible mobility services; fluid payment systems; customised and intelligent booking and ordering systems, as well as track-and-trace technologies.

* Experimental spaces are meant to facilitate sociotechnical experimentation. In fact, to achieve real changes of paradigms in current modes of production and consumption, technological and social innovation has to be aligned. However, it is difficult to find adequate experimental space for both technological and social innovation at the same time. DSE initiatives could become such socio-technical micro-experimental spaces.

Such enabling platforms and frameworks would present a number of advantages for consumers and users of products and services. It is often suggested that for sustainable consumption to become a reality, governments and industry must make the sustainable choice a viable choice. Translating this concept into action has been challenging. The ideas put forward by the EMUDE consortium on the potential of DSE and action welfare in addressing sustainable production and consumption systems represents a positive contribution to realising sustainable choices for consumers.

One of the most significant potential for application of these complementary concepts of DSE and active welfare lies in considering them as forerunners of sustainable production models. As a matter of fact, creative communities have invented unprecedented cultural activities, forms of organisation and economic models that are characterised by the balance between localisation (they are rooted in a place and in the community related to that place), and connection to the larger networks, that is, to the global flows of ideas, information, people and things. This indicates sustainable ways of valorising existing resources and proposes production and consumption networks based mainly on direct and neighbourhood relationships: a new economic model based on a strong social fabric and on a low ecological footprint.

There are limitations within this proposed concept however. The EMUDE consortium's action research process revealed that for most cases, while social advantages are sufficiently clear, the environmental advantages warrant further inspection and analysis. For example in the case of car-sharing systems, while material intensity reductions are evident, these could be offset if the vehicles used in such systems are not fuel-efficient for example. Creative communities do not tell us how a whole sustainable production system could work. They are essentially still quite small in their scale. However, the consolidation and dissemination of creative communities and diffuse social enterprise, is put forward as an original way of attempting to experiment intrinsically more sustainable ways of living and producing 'from the bottom'. To be more precise: ways of living and producing that are able to merge social justice, environmental quality and a new sense of active citizenship, in the framework of a new idea of welfare and sustainable local development.

DSE alone is not a panacea for sustainability challenges faced in Europe today. Nevertheless, as the EMUDE results indicate, if the weak signals of social creativity are taken up, strengthened, connected and spread, their benefits can be greatly enhanced. Above that, if they are actively complemented by coherent targeted policy measures they will become strong enablers of wider socio-technical transition towards a sustainable society.

The ideas expressed in this article should be seen as belonging to all members of the EMUDE consortium and should not be attributed solely to the author of the article. Further information from Ezio Manzini via e-mail at ezio.manzini@polimi.it