Frances Westley examines how culture can both enable and constrain social innovation. She discusses the work of Tostan, which facilitated dialogue to empower communities in Senegal and end female genital cutting. Westley also analyzes how religion can be a barrier or opportunity for change, using the example of funeral ritual changes in Java. Finally, she explores how creating cultures of resilience and using art can catalyze radical social transformation by empowering marginalized voices.

1. Social Innovation and the Webs of
Culture: sustaining or
restraining?
Frances Westley
Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience
May 2014

2. Shifting culture for positive social
change
Tostan
• Created to facilitate a different
kind of dialogue at community
levels- facilitated meetings
involving all stakeholders
• Moved from women’s rights to
human rights
• FGC an emergent issue
• Moved from community to
community through religious
leaders
• Took advantage of opportunities
created by international pressure;
legislation in Senegal
Mission to empower African communities to bring
about sustainable development and positive social
transformation based on respect for human rights.

3. Definition of
Culture
“Man is an
animal
suspended in
webs of
significance he
himself has
spun. I take
culture to be
those webs
Clifford Geertz

4. Changing the system dynamics
that created the problem in the
first place
A social innovation is any project, product,
process, program, platform or policy that
challenges and, over time, changes, the
defining routines, resource and authority
flows or beliefs of the broader social system
in which it is introduced. Successful social
innovations have durability, scale and
transformative impact.

5. Social
institution
s
Scale
Structures of
legitimation
(norms and
procedures)
Structures
of
dominatio
n (power )
Structures of
domination
( resources)
Structures of
signification
(values and
beliefs)
Macro
Societies/
cultures
Legal Institutions Political
Institutions
Economic
Institutions
Cultural Institutions
(media, schools,
churches, etc.)
Meso
Organizati
ons,
networks,
communiti
es,
associatio
ns
Rules,
procedures,
norms that
govern our
interactions
(formal or
informal) around
work and social
interaction
Hierarchies,
distribution
of authority.
Rules that
govern our
interactions
around
power
Markets,
transactions,
distribution of
resources.
Rules that
govern
distribution,
access, and
use.
Values, beliefs,
popular culture.
Rules that allow us to
interpret and
reproduce the
meanings of day to
day invent
Micro
(interactio
ns/convers
ations)
What are the
rules that govern
our exchanges
Who
controls the
topic, the
mood?
Who gets
more
time/whose
ideas are
privileged?
What values and
beliefs inform the
interaction

6. Culture and social innovation
• Religion as barrier and an enabler
– The hunger for meaning/salvation
– The manipulation of values
– The divisive/constructive potential of ethics
• Culture as enabler
– Creating cultures of resilience and innovation
– Art and social change

7. The human search
for meaning and
salvation
First –
religion as
double
edged sword

8. Strong religious belief as a barrier

9. Religious change as opportunity:
Funeral Rituals in Java
• Introduction of new
values through
modernization
• Disturbance of power
relationships
• Breakdown of rituals
• Breakdown of
personality

10. A new species of trouble – Kai Erikson
(1995)

11. And yet….
Why?

12. Sense of Coherence
Comprehensibility
Manageability
Meaningfulness
Almedon et.al, 2006

13. So what happens when religion
weakens?

14. Immortality Projects
Becker’s The Denial of Death
“The denial of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal
like nothing else; it is the mainspring of human activity -
activity designed largely to avoid the fatality of death, to
overcome it by denying in some way, that it is the final
destiny for man” (Becker 1973: ix)
[People] tranquillize themselves with the 'trivial“ so they can lead normal lives'
courtesy of Steve Quilley

15. The Denial of Death
5. CULTURE AS
INNOCULATION
AGAINST THOUGHT
OF DEATH
A. Immortality
projects
B. Terror
Management
20
Michael Owen
scores against
Germany
A medieval guild
of stonemasons
courtesy of Steve Quilley

16. The Denial of Death
5. CULTURE AS
INNOCULATION
AGAINST THOUGHT
OF DEATH
A. MEANING
B. VALUE
C. DENIAL
SYMBOLIC
• Monumental achievements
• Children
• Works of art
• Symbolic selves
• Literal preservation
16courtesy of Steve Quilley

17. Avenues for heroism in late
Modernity…
Any/all of these will get you into Hello
Magazine or Grazia:
1. Wealth
2. Youthfulness, beauty, health
3. Sexual conquests [for men] or
allure [for women]
4. Mindless celebrity, notoriety, fame
These will not:
1. Decency
2. Hard work
3. Craftsmanship
4. Professionalism
5. Being a good mother
6. Being a good Christian
7. Being well-regarded in
your community
Becker: “Men avoid clinical neurosis when they can
trustingly live their heroism in some kind of self-
transcending drama” (198)
“In order for something to seem true to man, it has
to be visible supported in some way - lived,
external, compelling. Men need pageants, crowds,
panoplies, special days marked off on calendars – an
objective focus for obsession, something to give
form and body to internal fantasy, something
external to yield oneself to” (200) 17

18. Hero/immortality projects and the
changing culture…
BIOSPHERE
JANICE DICKINSON (2009) The People
Paradox
Education ineffective
• Assumption of rationality
• Isolated individuals (Homo Clausus)
Fear Ineffective
Thinking about death (‘death primes’)
1. increases consuming behaviour
2. promotes intolerance of different
worldviews
3. Increases intensity of ‘in group
affiliations’
18

19. HOW VALUES GET MANIPULATED
The role of values in innovation. The dangers of intervening in cultures

20. Faulty theory of human
behaviour.
Why don’t we gain widespread
traction on behaviour?
Cognitivist vision of highly ego-centric,
instrumental, rational individuals who respond
to data, informat i o n , knowledge and
incentives.
courtesy of Steve Quilley

21. MOTIVATION, DRIVERS, PSYCHOLOGY
Phenomenon: the Freudian unconscious and the architecture of the human psyche
The Id is an ‘unconscious’
component, which acts as a
storehouse of instinctual desires,
needs, and psychic actions.
By making use of the store of affective
and emotional associations
at the level of the Id, the unconscious
mind can be manipulated for
therapeutic [or economic, political,
social] effect.
courtesy of Steve Quilley

22. CAPTURING THE UNCONSCIOUS AS THE
BASIS FOR DISRUPTIVE SOCIAL INNOVATION
Edward Bernays
• The Engineering of Consent (1947)
• Manipulating Public Opinion: The Why and the How (1928)
courtesy of Steve Quilley

23. CAPTURING THE UNCONSCIOUS AS THE
BASIS FOR DISRUPTIVE SOCIAL INNOVATION
Case: Exploiting the Freudian unconscious
to promote mass consumption
Edward L Bernays : ‘psychoanalyst to
troubled corporations’
Uncle Ziggycourtesy of Steve Quilley

24. CAN WE USE THESE
POWERFUL MOTIVATIONS
FOR GOOD??
And by the way, what is “good”?
Now, let’s talk about that thorny
topic - ethics

25. “Riding the Waves of Culture”
Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner
– The authors have studied the effect of culture on
management for 15 years
– 1000 cross-cultural training programs in over 100 countries
– Data gathered from over 30 companies with departments
spanning 50 countries
– Database of over 30,000 participants

26. Social Innovation and Culture
• “Culture is the way in which a group of people solves
problems and reconciles dilemmas”
• Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner, 1998: 6.

27. Social Innovation and Culture
• “Culture is like gravity: you do not experience it until you jump
six feet into the air.”
• Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner, 1998: 5-6.
– Universalism vs. Particularism (rules vs. relationships)
– Individualism vs. Communitarianism (the group vs. the
individual)
– Neutral vs. Emotional (the range of feelings expressed)
– Specific vs. Diffuse (the range of involvement)
– Achievement vs. Ascription (how status is accorded)
– Attitudes to Time
– Attitudes to the Environment

28. • Universalism vs. Particularism
• You are riding in a car driven by a close friend. He hits
a pedestrian. You know he was going at least 35 miles
per hour in an area of the city where the maximum
allowed speed is 20 miles per hour. There are no
witnesses. His lawyer says that if you testify under
oath that he was only driving 20 miles per hour it may
save him from serious consequences.
• What right has your friend to expect you to protect
him?
Social Innovation and Culture

29. • Universalism vs. Particularism
Social Innovation and Culture

30. WORKING Across Cultures:
Recognizing the Differences
Universalist Culture
1. Focus more on rules than on
relationships.
2. Draw up legal contracts readily.
3. View as trustworthy those who
honor their word or contract.
4. Recognize as valid only one
truth or reality, the one that has
been agreed to.
5. Believe that “a deal is a deal.”
Particularist Culture
1. Focus more on relationship than on
rules.
2. Modify legal contracts readily.
3. View as trustworthy those who
honor changing mutualities.
4. Recognize several perspectives on
reality as valid, relative to each
participant.
5. Expect that “relationships evolve.”

31. Doing Business Across Cultures:
Practical Tips
For Particularists
(working with Universalists)
1. Be prepared for “rational”
and “professional”
arguments that push for
your acquiescence.
2. Do not take impersonal,
“get-down-to-business”
attitudes as rude.
3. If in doubt, carefully prepare
the legal ground with a
lawyer.
For Universalists
(working with Particularists)
1. Be prepared for personal,
“meandering,” or “irrelevant”
interactions that do not seem
to be going anywhere.
2. Do not take personal, “get to
know you” attitudes as
unimportant small talk.
3. Carefully consider the personal
implications of your legal
“safeguards.”

32. Ethics as “good conversation”

33. CREATING CULTURES OF
INNOVATION AND RESILIENCE
So diversity, combined, is a precondition for innovation – enough
commonality or empathy to understand – enough difference to benefit

34. 1. Innovation thrives on diversity

35. Cultures of Innovation: SARS in Toronto:

36. Creative response in Organizations
is built by:
–Consultation across levels
–Social justice
–Decentralized decision making and self
governance
–Flexible scheduling
–Avoiding blame and emphasizing learning

37. Using artistic production as a
catalyst for radical transformation

38. Artistic production as radical transformation –
artists as institutional entrepreneurs
FAG
• Allyson Mitchell and Deirdre
Logue opened gallery in
back yard.
• Used their own social and
intellectual capital to
provide a venue for artists
who normally would not get
a hearing.
• Tate Modern show: “kicking
open the back door”
The pair were interested in creating an opportunity to reorganize
existing power structures in the art world, and running a feminist gallery
out of their home allowed them to do things differently. One way this is
done is by offering emerging artists flexibility and trust.

39. Art as a motivator – it moves us

41. Olafur Eliasson; The Weather Project, Tate Modern 2003

42. SOCIETAL JENGA IS A DANGEROUS GAME
Social complexity [of any kind] costs, and here is
where we start paying.
Consumerism and growth linked systemically and
intrinsically to every other aspect of modern society
– good and bad.
• Liberalism
• Gender equality
• Youth culture
• Technological innovation
• Political stability in class societies
• Cosmopolitanism
• (internally) peaceful societies
Is a low-energy, low-throughput cosmopolitan
society plausible?
CAN WE RECONCILE THESE VALUES?
COURTESY OF STEVE QUILLEY

43. Innovation as reconciling values - the
horns of the dilemma