Are we ready for a culture of public and social R&D?

Faced with the complexity of today’s socio-environmental challenges, we must think outside the box and reconsider dysfunctional approaches. Innovation requires that we allow ourselves time and space to experiment—to navigate the unknown. It is precisely by experimenting that we not only open up the field of possibility, but also mitigate the uncertainties involved in attempting something new.

The 11th edition of Raccords focuses on experimentation as a lever for social transformation. Research and development (R&D) is both encouraged and widely practiced in fields that value pure science, technology, and industrial and commercial profitability. But public, institutional, civic, and private-sector decision-makers often overlook and even dismiss R&D as a way to address the social and environmental challenges they face. Yet the problems of poverty, homelessness, migration, climate change, and education stand in the way of collective and individual prosperity. These problems call for ingenious and sustainable solutions. To take them on, why not promote social R&D in the same way we do business R&D?

Raccords explores this question by meeting with a London-based expert in collective intelligence, public policy, and social innovation; a Montreal-based creator; and a Paris-based social innovator who heads an action group focused on transforming the management culture of local communities.