Sustaining and Growing Social Innovations Using Integrated Development Models

Abstract

In this chapter on “Sustaining and Growing Social Innovations Using Integrated Development Models,” development models are considered to be integrated when activities that are primarily directed toward delivering positive social outcomes also generate income to cover their financial costs, thus providing scope for sustaining and scaling the activities and their social benefits. It identifies harbingers of integrated development models emerging through the efforts of some social innovators. Insights are drawn from the experiences of time bank success cases. The chapter explores their business models and, more generally, their contributions to the development of complementary local community economies that might offer structured, coherent, and coordinated approaches to asset-based community development. The chapter recommends that policy-makers legitimize experiments with complementary economies and currencies, digital currency platforms, and governance arrangements for these. It proposes a community laboratory approach to innovation, learning, and evidence gathering through experiments co-produced with local communities and stakeholders.