Why Social Entrepreneurship, Systems Thinking, and Complexity?

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Why Social Entrepreneurship, Systems
Thinking, and Complexity?
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Bringing Theory and
Practice Together There is nothing more
practical than a good theory.
-- Kurt Lewin
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Associacao Saude Crianca Renascer

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s
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• 1991--founded by Pediatrician Vera Cordeiro
  because of recidivism rate of children with same
  health problems meeting with 50 colleagues
• Reach-out to families (mothers) in favelas re
  treatment plans, medical education, antiseptic
  conditions enlisted other docs, nurses, etc.
• Many more joined as volunteers, set-up physical
  location, began work inside the favelas and
  instituted job training and small businesses
  involving dress making, crafts, cooking
• Free nutritional supplements as incentives
• Funding from government, Ashoka Foundation, dues
  paying members, help from McKinsey Consulting
• Replication scaling outwards to 14 other
  hospitals in Rio, Sao Paulo, and Recife.

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Success Factors in S.E. What to Emphasize?
Odilon Arantes (Head of Pediatric Ward at
Hospital da Lagoa) Here I can say with absolute
assurance that the main element for Renascers
success was Vera. Vera acknowledged she had
brought people together, but it was their
collective energy that made it all happen.
Bornstein, p. 145
Charismatic heroic leader
Networks, Emergence, Resonance--Complexity
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Barka Foundation for the Promotion of
Mutual Help

• In early 1990s, govt stopped subsidizing
  collective farms with the result that thousands
  became homeless
• Tomasz Sadowski and his wife, both psychologists,
  purchased abandoned schoolhouse and renovated it
  and started farming
• By 2003 there were 20 such homes/farms mature
  mother houses hatch new smaller homes and
  farms
• Residents manage each home and farm with
  assistance of Barkas staff
• One resident, We are all people with
  problemsbiggest miracle is that we sit at one
  table and talk with each... at the end of the day
  I feel needed
• Sadowski People told us that it wasnt possible
  to create such an inclusive feelingthere is
  nothing mysterious about it. The worst criminal
  doesnt believe things can be this way only
  because he has never come across these kinds of
  relationships..

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Barka Foundation for the Promotion of
Mutual Help

• Sadowski People told us that it wasnt possible
  to create such an inclusive feelingthere is
  nothing mysterious about it. The worst criminal
  doesnt believe things can be this way only
  because he has never come across these kinds of
  relationships..

collective/cooperation interaction resonance
emergence (possibility and hope)-- complexity
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Social EntrepreneurshipGrass roots/community
organizing
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Complexity TheoryNetworks/Graphs
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What kind of network or graph?Hub network scale
free network small world network emergence of
giant cluster?What information do we gain when
we know what kind of network/graph?
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Social Entrepreneurship has Systems Thinking and
Complexity Written All Over It

• Networks/graphs/collectivity
• Distributed control/heterarchy
• Innovation/emergence
• Scaling outwards, upwards, downwards
• Differences/information flow
• Self-organization

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From Skoll Application Form
Equilibrium describes a stable state, generally
economic or social, controlled by and benefiting
established entities. The social entrepreneur
sees the limitations of an existing equilibrium
and offers a more efficient solution with the
potential to benefit those not served by the
existing model. Skoll is seeking social
entrepreneurs who have created and are
implementing new, large-scale approaches that can
change the equilibrium by fundamentally
transforming the lives of marginalized
populations. The ultimate example of equilibrium
change would be to eliminate a problem by solving
its root cause or to create global impact by
driving universal adoption of a new innovation by
all others who address the same issue.
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Challenge of Diffusion of Innovation for S.
E.s. (Rogers)
Normal Distribution
Early Adopters --- 13.5
Mean
Innovators
2.5
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Challenge of Diffusion of Innovation for S.
E.s. (Rogers)
Normal Distribution
Early Adopters --- 13.5
From Resistance to
Attraction
Mean
Innovators
2.5
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Reward Recognition Sharing Comraderie Boredom
Creativity Innovation Transformation
Learning Excitement Tension
Status Quo Passivity Inertia Restoration
War Short term peace Anger Frustration
From Eoyang
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EXAMPLES OF EMERGENCE
life consciousness speciation project
teams multi-organisms artificial life
the Internet magnetism superfluidity
superconductivity additional
computational functionality dissipative
structures optimal options
prices perception of color attractors and
their basins drug interactions
leadership behavior software bugs
temperature cities wars
scientific revolutions Benard cells
creative ideas giant graph component

Social entrepreneurial projects
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In a sense, I put together elements that were
already there, but that is what inventors always
do. You cant make up new elements, usually. The
new element, if any, it was the combination, the
way they were used. -- Kary Mullis, Nobel
Laureate for his invention of polymerase
chain reaction (PCR)
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To invent, you need a good imagination and a
pile of junk. -Thomas Alva Edison