The connection between social and public sector innovation: a theoretical framework

Abstract

The present paper offers a reflection framework that relates social and public sector innovation for the co-creation of public policies, thorough new theoretical and meth- odological approaches, which connect them in different networks of shared govern- ance in the Basque Country. This intermediate space of socio-political interaction involves diverse actors/agents– researchers, policymakers, social entrepreneurs, civil servants and social organizations, etc.– by facilitating new spaces of action for social innovation from a systemic and structural perspective. This paper explores this rela- tion through the Basque public program Etorkizuna Eraikiz. This process is framed inside the Strategic Management Plan for 2015-2019 for the province of Gipuzkoa, which is based on a new Open and Collaborative Governance Model developed by the Provincial Government of Gipuzkoa in the Basque Country. The initiative looks to institutionalize new channels of communication through a long-term collaborative governance approach to scale and look for new social solutions that can influence public policies.