Paul Weaver

Groundswell Research Associates, London, UK · Action research

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 activit...

In recent years we may observe increasing interest in the development of social innovation both regarding theory as well as the practice of responding to social problems and challenges. One of the crucial challenges at the beginning of the 21st century is population ageing. Various new and innovative initiatives, programs, schemes, and projects to...

This article responds to increasing public and academic discourses on social innovation, which often rest on the assumption that social innovation can drive societal change and empower actors to deal with societal challenges and a retreating welfare state. In order to scrutinise this assumption, this article proposes a set of concepts to study the...

Aging is continuously depicted as a force majeure event despite clear and robust premonitions of its coming. However, such depiction serves to justify the unpreparedness and inadequacy of policies manifesting in loneliness and isolation, unsatisfied demands in health and social care, lack of suitably inclusive residential and social facilities, and...

'Perspectives on transitions to sustainability' presents a variety of analytical perspectives on systemic change, exploring what insights they collectively offer for policy, governance and knowledge creation. The report includes five academic papers drafted by internationally recognised experts in the field of sustainability transitions. For each o...

Draws on analyses of social innovation success cases undertaken by Groundswell Research Associates, London, UK, to develop inferences and recommendations for policy makers and practitioners about scaling pathways for transformative social innovation.

The paper addresses the ‘LifeShare’ project, which is a collaborative project of two organizations in Kingston-upon-Hull, UK. The partnership is between the Time Bank Hull and East Riding (TBHER) and OpenDoors (OD) and seeks to improve opportunities for asylum seekers and refugees (hereafter ‘migrants’) to engage with the wider community, become ac...

Neoliberalism is a powerful narrative that has shaped processes of urban economic development across the globe. This paper reports on four nascent ‘new economic’ narratives which represent fundamentally different imaginaries of the urban economy. Experiments informed by these narratives challenge the dominant neoliberal logic in four key dimensions...

Continuing economic turbulence has fuelled debates about social and political reform as much as it has stimulated actions and initiatives aimed at a more fundamental transition of dominant economic systems. This paper takes a transition perspective to explore, from a Western European viewpoint, how the economic crisis is actually viewed through a v...

In his book The Great Transformation (1944), Karl Polanyi introduced the concept of a double movement in society. The first movement is towards marketization: the spread of market thinking and market-based forms of allocation throughout society, driven by international trade and naturalist ideas of competition and utilitarianism. The second movemen...

Social innovation is increasingly believed to have a great potential for addressing persistent societal challenges such as sustainability, social inclusion, democratization and deprivation. We understand transformative social innovation (TSI) as social innovation that is aimed to challenge, alter, replace or provide alternatives to dominant institu...

This Milestone One Report is the first of three status reports, summarizing the interim findings of the first three work packages of the AIRP-SD project. This project, conducted for the STRATA (Strategic Analysis of Specific Political Issues) Programme of the European Commission, meets the challenge that sustainable development presents for researc...

In the words of Tim O’Riordan, sustainable development is a ‘tough nut to crack’ because it does not fit easily with the normal political model of analysis and decision. The urgent need for sustainable development is evident, but the concept is vague, contradictory and confusing. O’Riordan points out that there is no agreement on what sustainabilit...

The rapidly-evolving world of the 21st century faces tremendous challenges of economic, ecological, social, cultural and global dimensions to be handled by citizens with an increasing self-consciousness. Naming just some of the challenges provides immediate insight into their magnitude, nature and diversity: reduce and prevent international instabi...

This paper explains why learning, especially social learning, and evaluation are essential and integral parts of Integrated Sustainability Assessment (ISA). This is linked to the intent and purpose of ISA as a process that seeks to achieve transformative outcomes, including through issue reframing. The goals of ISA require a participatory process,...

This paper reviews some of the attempts that have been made in the EU to include sustainability concerns in ex ante policy assessment processes and explores why these are generally deemed to be ineffective. It argues that the dominant policy frames are not oriented towards sustainable development. Traditional policy assessment procedures, which are...

This paper describes the co-development and implementation of visioning and experimenting exercises, agent-based modelling, and gaming tools in Integrated Sustainability Assessments (ISAs) involving stakeholders. These new tools are aimed at supporting reflexive learning and at building alternative policy relevant knowledge and evaluative paradigms...

Maximising the value and utilisation rate of the capital stock of durable goods offers a way to sustain wellbeing even in a capacitated environment. Niche examples demonstrate the potential, but new framing conditions and incentives are needed if the approach is to become mainstreamed. Although single-measure solutions to the essentially-systemic p...

Introduction: The topic of this special issue is Integrated Sustainability Assessment (ISA) and its potential role in achieving sustainability-oriented governance and more sustainable development. This is a topic that has featured before in the International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development. Two of the Guest Editors for this specia...

Climate change is a complex phenomenon. Responses in the form of decisions and actions on mitigation and adaptation measures, what balance among these should be preferred and how preferred options might be implemented are needed across many different levels in the governance structure and across many contexts of application. These will have to be d...

This paper describes a new conceptualisation of sustainability assessment as an integrative and active process at the science-policy-society interface and its implementation as exemplified in case studies within the Methods and Tools for Integrated Sustainability Assessment (MATISSE) project. Integrated Sustainability Assessment (ISA) is defined wi...

El presente trabajo describe el proceso participativo vinculado al desarrollo y la implementación del prototipo de un modelo que tiene como principal objetivo servir de soporte durante el procesos de Evaluación Integrada de la Sostenibilidad (EIS) de diferentes opciones políticas de gestión de los recursos hídricos a diferentes niveles de acción. E...

Recent years have seen a rapid rise in the political saliency of the ever growing volumes of municipal waste produced in the UK. In this paper, we outline the preliminary findings of a research project that is examining the nature and development of municipal waste policy (MWP) in north-east England. We provide an overview of the changing national,...

This paper identifies influences on the design of the innovative statutory framework now driving change in waste management practice in England. The framework employs a mix of policy instruments, including a landfill allowance-trading scheme that is the first-ever economy-wide permit trading scheme and mandatory recycling targets. Despite intensive...

Report of the European Science and Technology Observatory (JRC-IPTS) of a survey and assessment of early research initiatives of several European countires in support of sustainable development.

Deliverable for the STRATA Program Project: Adaptive Integration of Research and Policy for Sustainable Development setting out hypotheses about the relationship between science and sustainable development and the challenges that sustainable development poses for science.

Deliverable for the STRATA Program Project: Adaptive Integration of Research and Policy for Sustainable Development. The report sets out a methodological approach developed and used in the project for the evaluation of research projects and programmes intended to suppport sustainable development. The AIRP-SD project aimed at defining principles and...

Foreword Leo Jansen and Geert van Grootveld Preface Paul Weaver Part 1 1. Capacity-building for sustainable technology development and innovation 2. The scale of the sustainability challenge 3. Technology and technological change 4. The STD programme design and approach Part 2 5. The STD process exemplified: the case of nutrition 6. Constructive Te...

Policy makers are seeking to reduce the environmental impact of the European pulp and paper sector by influencing technology choices throughout its life cycle. Because of its preoccupation with existing technologies, policy risks causing perverse environmental outcomes or adverse effects on some countries' industry and trade. The scientific basis f...

By the mid-1970s it had become clear over much of the advanced capitalist world that rapid economic growth, profitable production, rising material living standards, and full employment had ceased to be simultaneously attainable objectives. Moreover, it was also clear that the mass economy had grave environmental impacts. We begin this paper by brie...

In this paper, we propose a methodology, based on materials accounting and operational research techniques, to assess different industry configurations according to their life cycle environmental impacts. Rather than evaluating a specific technology, our methodology searches for the feasible configuration with the minimum impact. This approach allo...

Will paper recycling reduce the environmental impact of the European pulp and paper sector? If so, is maximal paper recycling the best policy to optimize the life cycle of the pulp and paper sector? We explore these questions using an approach that combines materials accounting methods and optimization techniques. Environmental impact data are inpu...

As part of the shift in emphasis in environmental policy from clean-up to avoidance, environmental policy instruments that specify preferred technological directions for an industry are increasingly being used. Take-back requirements and mandatory recycling are cases in point. These directly affect the mix of materials and the technologies used by...

This report presents the results of a before study of some effects of the introduction of wheel clamps in Central London. Park and visit, vehicle following, registration number and business interview surveys were conducted in two areas of Central London: Mayfair in which wheel clamps were to be introduced, and Bloomsbury where they were not. The su...

In this paper we argue that there is a need to distinguish between several different - albeit related - societal goals that all have some relation to economic activity. These concern the level of formal economic activity, the level of real income and net change in national wealth, the level of wellbeing, and the possibilities to sustain each of the...

When the Limits to Growth study (Meadows et al. 1972) found that humankind was on a trajectory towards overshoot of carrying capacity and population collapse,, one of the most common reactions (e.g., Simon and Kahn 1984) was to dismiss the results of the computer model runs, on the theory that technology would be developed that would forever push a...

This paper presents a partial review of written and verbal contributions to a workshop entitled "Pragmatism and Effective Policy-Making for Environment and Development" The workshop -designed ro be an interdisciplinary contribution Io policy discussions surrounding issues of sustainable development -was field in Abisko, Sweden. Co-sponsors of the w...