From competition to collaboration, what will it take? Developing collective impact as a social innovation in the UK Master thesis for Master of Arts in Social Innovation Danube University Krems, Austria Ms Tara Anderson Primary Advisor: Msc, Remko Berkhout Secondary Advisor: Mag.a Denisa Vesely London, UK, August 2015 Acknowledgements I am indebted to many people for advice, input and feedback on this thesis. I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Remko Berkhout, for his encouragement, theoretical knowledge and practical insight. His ability to think outside existing frameworks, to challenge my arguments, and his reminders not to take myself too seriously, were greatly appreciated. This thesis would not have been possible without the collective impact practitioners who gave their time to share their learning. Their willingness to contribute to the research embodies the values and philosophy of collective impact work. Thank you to the team at the Finance Innovation Lab for welcoming me to their meetings and events and being so open in sharing their experiences. Particular thanks go to Jennifer Morgan for sharing her experience, and arranging interviews with other Finance Innovation Lab members. Thank you to Chris Hewett and Christine Berry for their time and insights. Thank you to Louisa Mitchell of West London Zone, for her honest ‘warts and all’ reflections. Thank you to Matthew Pike for sharing his previous research and future collective impact plans. I also owe thanks to my colleagues at London Early Years Foundation - Louise Cooper and Catherine Whitecourt - who gave their time to review earlier versions of the thesis. Their encouragement on Monday mornings after a weekend of reading and writing was gratefully received. Finally I acknowledge the support of my partner, Andrew Curtis. Without his encouragement, I would not have enrolled in the Masters in the first place. His reminder to come back to the research question when I had headed off on a tangent, his critical reflections, and not forgetting the regular cups of coffee, added great value to the finished product. 2 Abstract There is increasing recognition that cross-sector collaboration is crucial in addressing entrenched and systemic social challenges. In the UK, collaborative initiatives appear to have been eroded somewhat by the dominant neoliberal ideology that encourages individualism and competition and results in fragmented approaches to social change. Collective impact is emerging as a socially innovative practice around the world, offering an advanced form of structured collaboration with the potential to significantly increase impact in addressing systemic challenges. This thesis explores the conditions required to make collective impact work in the UK through an analysis of barriers and enablers. It will draw on a review of international collective impact literature and two London-based collective impact projects – The Finance Innovation Lab and West London Zone. It will be argued that the key to developing collective impact in the UK is a new generation of independent, third sector backbone organisations that are sufficiently funded, promoted and supported. Keywords: backbone organisations, collective impact, social innovation, collaboration, systems change 3 Reflections and learning This thesis began with two observations. Firstly, economic inequality in the UK is far beyond acceptable levels. Secondly, working with charities and social enterprises over the past ten years I have noticed a cognitive dissonance – while impact reports boasted positive results, the issues these organisations were tackling were not shifting on a wider level. Moving from Australia to the UK I was surprised to discover how fragmented the UK charity and social enterprise sector is, with a proliferation of small charities and social enterprises, many competing with each other but ultimately working towards the same goal. Despite their work to improve conditions for the most disadvantaged and vulnerable, and the hype of social innovation as the ‘next big thing’, entrenched social challenges such as economic inequality remain stubbornly in place. These observations led me to the practice of collective impact as a framework for combining resources for greater impact, and I formulated the research question: how can collective impact be used to reduce economic inequality in the UK? During the course of the research it became evident that the scope of my ambition was greater than the scope of the thesis. I am aware that it is difficult (if not impossible) to prove causality between collective impact and a reduction in economic inequality, and so the research question was refined to look more specifically at the conditions required for collective impact to be practiced as a social innovation in the UK, using a reduction in economic inequality as a case in point. I have a normative understanding of social innovation and believe that it should have the intent and effect of justice, empowerment and equality. I believe there is huge opportunity to address complex challenges and achieve systems change, such as a reduction in economic inequality, if resources are combined in more creative ways through collective impact. This thesis sets out to explore how that could be made possible in the UK context. 4 Contents Chapter One - Introduction ................................................................................ 7 Chapter Two - Methodology ............................................................................ 11 Theory and process ........................................................................................................................ 11 Literature review ............................................................................................................................... 11 Case study analysis ........................................................................................................................... 12 Interviews ......................................................................................................................................... 12 Observations ..................................................................................................................................... 14 Limitations to the study ................................................................................................................. 16 A note on economic inequality ....................................................................................................... 17 Definitions of social innovation abound ......................................................................................... 18 Categorising social innovation definitions ...................................................................................... 19 The argument for a normative definition of social innovation ........................................................ 20 The march of neoliberalism ............................................................................................................ 24 The UK’s ‘Big Society’: the privatisation and austerity agenda ........................................................ 25 Implications of neoliberalism for collaborative styles of working ................................................... 26 Why the approach is flawed: the proof is in economic inequality ................................................... 27 Income inequality ............................................................................................................................. 28 Wealth inequality .............................................................................................................................. 29 Poverty .............................................................................................................................................. 29 Chapter Five - collective impact as an alternative approach ............................. 31 The what and why of collaboration ................................................................................................ 31 Collective impact – an emerging approach ..................................................................................... 33 Collective impact as a social innovation ......................................................................................... 35 A brief look at the international collective impact landscape ......................................................... 36 Chapter Six – primary barriers and enablers of collective impact in the UK ...... 40 Primary barriers ............................................................................................................................. 44 Existing services with established theories of change ...................................................................... 44 Time required to build relationships ................................................................................................. 45 Ego and power dynamics .................................................................................................................. 46 Inflexible understanding of perceived roles ..................................................................................... 48 The political and cultural climate in the UK ...................................................................................... 49 Lack of long-term and flexible funding ............................................................................................. 51 Primary