Implications of Current Research on Social Innovation in the Basque Country
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Implications of Current Research on Social Innovation in the Basque Country EDITED BY Ander Gurrutxaga Abad and Antonio Rivera Center for Basque Studies UPV/EHU University of Nevada, Reno Center for Basque Studies Current Research Series, No. 4 Implications of Current Research on Social Innovation in the Basque Country Edited by Ander Gurrutxaga Abad and Antonio Rivera Current Research Series No. 4 Center for Basque Studies University of Nevada, Reno Published in conjunction with the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU // Center for I -:;_ Basque Studies Universidad Euskal Herriko 0 .. UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, RENO ■ del Pais Vasco Unibertsitatea Current Research Selections of the ongoing work done by the faculty of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), www.ehu.es/ Editorial Committee Amaia Maseda (Chair, UPV/EHU), Arantza Azpiroz (UPV/EHU), Javier Echeverría (Ikerbasque), Jon Landeta (UPV/EHU), Sandra Ott (UNR), Joseba Zulaika (UNR), Santos Zunzunegui (UPV/EHU) Current Research Series, No. 4 Center for Basque Studies University of Nevada, Reno Reno, Nevada 89557 http://basque.unr.edu Copyright © 2011 by the Center for Basque Studies All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Cover and series design © 2011 by Jose Luis Agote. Cover design based on engravings by Eduardo Chillida and Jorge Oteiza. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Implications of current research on social innovation in the Basque Country / edited by Ander Gurrutxaga Abad and Antonio Rivera. p. cm. -- (Current research series ; no. 2) Includes bibliographical references and index. Summary: “Collection of articles on social innovation in the Basque Country”--Provided by publisher. ISBN 978-1-935709-05-3 (pbk.) 1. Pais Vasco (Spain)--Social conditions. 2. Basques--Social conditions. 3. Economic development--Social aspects. I. Gurruchaga, Ander. II. Rivera, Antonio. III. University of Nevada, Reno. Center for Basque Studies. HN590.P275I45 2011 303.440946’6--dc22 2011001951 Contents Introduction — Ander Gurrutxaga Abad and Antonio Rivera .... 7 1. Te History of Innovation in the Basque Country Antonio Rivera........................................................ 11 2. Te Human Face of Basque Social Innovation: Demography, Family, and Human Capital, 1860–2000 Manuel González Portilla and José Urrutikoetxea Lizarraga ................................. 29 3. Pathways to Social Innovation in the Basque Country Ander Gurrutxaga ................................................... 53 4. Socio-Structural Contexts of Social Innovation in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country Auxkin Galarraga Ezponda ......................................... 73 5. Material and Institutional Resources for Innovation in the Basque Economy: An Evaluation of the Basque Innovation System Javier Bilbao-Ubillos and Vicente Camino-Beldarrain......... 95 6. Cooperation in Innovation: A Qualitative Study of Industrial SMEs Eneka Albizu, Mikel Olazaran, and Beatriz Otero ............. 115 7. Rethinking Bilbao’s Regeneration Process: Innovative Strategies in a Global Framework Sandra González and Álvaro Luna................................. 135 8. Art and Social Innovation in the City Natxo Rodríguez Arkaute........................................... 157 9. Ikastolas as a Social Innovation Phenomenon: A Case Study Marce Masa ............................................................ 171 6 Contents 10. Te Distinctiveness of the Social Services System in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country Lola Simón Alfonso................................................... 193 Index ......................................................................... 211 List of Contributors ......................................................... 219 Introduction Ander Gurrutxaga Abad and Antonio Rivera Translated by Jennifer R. Ottman Some interpretive keys can help us comprehensively understand the dynamics of social innovation. Most important among these is the way it is difused and spread, without which any one of its elements is practi- cally meaningless. In order to encourage innovation, there need to be appropriate contexts and terrain. Similarly, the value of the interactions it promotes and the connectivity it generates stands out more than, for example, the stocks of knowledge that can be found in particular geo- graphical locations. Knowledge is mobile, fuid, and unstable, and as a result, it can never be a static piece of property. Social innovation is a cultural exercise where success is a matter above all of shared culture, of the dynamism of networks of knowledge transfer, learning from one another, and specifc factors that facilitate the exchange of information among diferent parties. Te human networks that interconnect and globalize the world are primarily networks of knowledge and information transfer with the ability to sustain interactive processes of learning and innovation. Once knowl- edge and information are extensively shared, the dynamics of innovation experienced in all the connected spaces are accelerated. In this way, the formation of a culture of innovation takes shape as the clearest exponent of tendencies that drive change. Human networks and the culture of innovation they contain are not born out of nothing, but rather are built on preexisting foundations that enable them to function and reproduce. Tey unfold in a process that takes time and manifests diferent traits in diferent geographical areas. 8 Ander Gurrutxaga and Antonio Rivera Te presence of suitable initial conditions does not entail the immediate creation of a culture of innovation; rather, it needs a period of maturation in which synergies among diferent elements can forge shared codes of interests and trust. It is the fruit of interactive and communicative rela- tionships among actors, agencies, and resources with the capacity to build networks of knowledge transfer and social spaces of innovation and active learning. Terefore, undoubtedly its dynamics are processes with a strong sociocultural component. But what are the fundamental pillars of social networks that make interaction, communication, and collective learning possible? Tis question necessarily leads us to consider the social and cul- tural factors that make it possible for repeated situations of relationship- building, association, and trust to fourish in certain geographical areas. Social innovation locates the basis for innovation in the ability to take advantage of a society’s social intelligence in the attempt to resolve prob- lems and build futures, linking the relationship among human beings to the capacities they acquire when it comes time to confront, for example, “confict,” “diversity,” “climate change,” “culture,” “the city and its new spaces,” and so on. Te result is that innovating means producing sys- tems of tolerance that accept some basic aspects of the existing situation in order to modify it, whether these are tangible (products, technologies, and so forth) or intangible assets (values, ideas, and institutions). If the process is successful, the transformed aspects acquire new uses and mean- ings. In this view, the thing invented is the tangible and hence modifed embodiment of existing (intangible) knowledge. Innovation can also be the product of chance and luck. Innovating does not mean following a path predetermined by any institution, but rather that the dynamics innovation creates and on which it builds acquire a variety of traits and trajectories in the places where they spread. Te problem appears when we observe that some societies lack dynamics of innovation. Tese processes exist alongside societies and countries that are incapable of fnding either paths or answers for improv- ing their citizens’ quality of life. Interactive processes of learning are possible thanks to shared socio- cultural and institutional contexts that generate a climate of trust and related objectives. It is problematic, as a consequence, to draw a clear line between innovation on the one hand and the attainment of concrete, tan- gible objectives on the other, especially in the areas of social and cultural innovation. Introduction 9 Should we not consider the small transformations that pass unno- ticed in institutions such as the family and daily life as substantial parts of social and cultural innovation? Is there no innovation in mundane or artistic spheres without concrete objectives? Innovation should be associ- ated with the search for solutions to daily problems, with the discovery of new facts in diverse societies, and with reinterpretation through use, praxis, and experimentation, more than with the attainment of pragmati- cally or rationally defned objectives. With time, objectives and initial ideas are diluted and modifed in such a way that use, practice, and the utility of what already exists are what generate the emergence of new ideas and distinct objectives. Innovation is not always “for a purpose”; instead, innovation takes place through improvisation or “because it turns out that way.” Processes of comprehensive innovation, those that “cast their net” over society as a whole, modifying its pillars and structures, in some cases pass through a sequence of stages in which an initial phase is followed by phases of consolidation, transformation, and collapse. In other cases, however, we not infrequently fnd societies that remain stuck in one of these phases, and we can likewise observe faster or slower transitions from one phase to another, depending on each society’s particular character-