Power and empowerment in social innovation

The issue of power relations is inextricably linked to questions about the transformative potential of social innovation. Since the concepts of ‘transitions' and ‘social innovation’ have been defined in terms of shifting societal relations, an understanding of such changing power relations is a necessary condition for understanding processes of (transformative) social innovation; i.e. the extent that social innovation challenges, alters and/or replaces existing power relations in the societal context. Understanding the transformative power of social innovation requires the study of how existing power relations are altered and/or reproduced in processes of social innovation, as well as the extent to which actors are empowered or disempowered through processes of social innovation. This chapter introduces three perspectives that have been especially designed to study power and empowerment in the context of processes of social innovation and transformation: 1) the Multi-Actor Perspective, 2) seven Power Contestations, and 3) six Dimensions of Empowerment.