The green transition is a fundamental transformation of our society that calls for collective action, social innovation and collaboration across sectors and disciplines. It touches every aspect of our lives - from our transportation habits, food production and labor market to our well-being and relationship with nature.
Danish Social Innovation Academy is working towards a more sustainable society - economically, green and socially. The Academy has grown out of a social agenda and what we traditionally call the welfare areas, but with an ambition to create connections and collaboration, not only across sectors but also across disciplines and fields. That's why we've now initiated work to strengthen collective agency in the green transition - and we're starting with ourselves.
Historically, we have managed to create major social change through collective action - the cooperative movement, the housing movement and key welfare institutions such as health insurance and public schools. In the same way, the green transition will require broad, popular engagement.
The green transition is inherently a social transition, where our ability to take collective action becomes crucial. There is a need to pool resources and knowledge and to stick together. For the collective imagination of the good society where we live within planetary boundaries. And to ensure that both burdens and opportunities in the green transition are fairly distributed. Social justice and green transition must go hand in hand.
The green transition requires a high level of support and involvement to avoid polarization, inequality and, ultimately, social unrest. And it requires the contribution and active involvement of citizens, businesses, civil society and public organizations in finding the solutions.
Social innovation as an approach is democratizing. It creates and strengthens relationships, and the innovation process itself is value-creating and transformative for those who participate.
In our work with the green transition, we have from the beginning also chosen to look inwards. Many of the Academy's members are rooted in the welfare sector, and we are therefore working on how we can integrate the agenda ourselves, both in our own practice and in our respective organisations. We will strengthen conversations about green transition in everything we do and invite experts from green organisations .
We see our learning community as an important base for acting externally - and taking responsibility for moving ourselves and society towards a sustainable future.
Initially, we have identified three themes that we will work with in the coming period:
Withthe Green Triangle, large parts of our country as we know it will be transformed into nature to restore biodiversity and conditions for life - in the countryside, but very much also in inland waters, fjords and rivers. This is a long-term change that will benefit future generations. This is a very concrete opportunity to take a long-term view of what kind of society we want to pass on to future generations.
At the same time, the vast majority of people have a relationship and an attitude to how their local area should be developed and concrete relationships to nature and places. The Green Tripartite is therefore an obvious opportunity to engage people in Denmark in local, democratic development processes that concern something concrete, understandable and important. And which can help to counteract polarization and paralysis and strengthen the collective power to act locally.
But how do we make the transition to more nature locally a public cause that mobilizes, engages and involves across generations? There is a need to mobilize forces, knowledge and experience through strengthened citizen involvement, democratic innovation and knowledge about systemic change. This ecosystem of actors must be brought into play in the concrete, local processes.
The Academy will contribute by connecting actors, developing a common language and images, and highlighting good cases that can inspire and strengthen collective action locally.
The welfare society exists and must be understood in the context of planetary boundaries. We have long debated "whether we can afford both green transition and welfare". We don't think this division makes sense, nor is it fruitful in discussions about how we develop our welfare society and drive the green transition.
We are concerned with how we can approach the development of our welfare society in a way that considers the well-being of the planet. In the big picture, it's about establishing an understanding that the well-being of humans and nature and other species cannot be separated. More specifically, it's about how we consider nature and our relationship with nature in social initiatives, in the health sector and in education and pedagogy. For example, nature is one of the places that many people use for exercise, and there is a strong link between access to (and relationship with) nature and quality of life.
The Academy can help connect actors working with welfare development and green transition and build bridges between perspectives and initiatives. We do this, for example, in the study "Mobilizing for Welfare", where we investigate what a welfare society model that takes planetary boundaries into account actually looks like.
We are facing an interwoven complex of planetary crises, all of which are the result of human impacts on nature and the ecosystems we are part of.
We've been so used to thinking of society, democracy and organization as something that concerns humans alone. But humans are also nature - and our well-being and lives are deeply dependent on the well-being of other species. At the same time, we feel how the forces of nature - such as floods and extreme weather - have a huge impact on human well-being.
How do we take this interconnectedness seriously in our democracy and social model? How can we bring the voice and perspective of other species into our decision-making processes in a way that they influence the decisions we make?
The Academy can help to highlight, experiment with and build capacity for organisations to include other species' perspectives in decision-making processes.
We can share experiences across the Academy members and together we can push for a better understanding of how to work with nature-inclusive governance. It is an agenda that is relevant both at the organizational level and in the overall conversation about the development of our democracy.
We believe that there is a great need to strengthen connections across disciplines and sectors in the green transition. If you want to talk further about how we strengthen collective action in the green transition, please contact Amanda Borg at amanda@afsi.dk.
Historically, we have managed to create major social change through collective action - the cooperative movement, the housing movement and key welfare institutions such as health insurance and public schools. In the same way, the green transition will require broad, popular engagement.
The green transition is inherently a social transition, where our ability to take collective action becomes crucial. There is a need to pool resources and knowledge and to stick together. For the collective imagination of the good society where we live within planetary boundaries. And to ensure that both burdens and opportunities in the green transition are fairly distributed. Social justice and green transition must go hand in hand.
The green transition requires a high level of support and involvement to avoid polarization, inequality and, ultimately, social unrest. And it requires the contribution and active involvement of citizens, businesses, civil society and public organizations in finding the solutions.
Social innovation as an approach is democratizing. It creates and strengthens relationships, and the innovation process itself is value-creating and transformative for those who participate.
In our work with the green transition, we have from the beginning also chosen to look inwards. Many of the Academy's members are rooted in the welfare sector, and we are therefore working on how we can integrate the agenda ourselves, both in our own practice and in our respective organisations. We will strengthen conversations about green transition in everything we do and invite experts from green organisations .
We see our learning community as an important base for acting externally - and taking responsibility for moving ourselves and society towards a sustainable future.
Initially, we have identified three themes that we will work with in the coming period:
Withthe Green Triangle, large parts of our country as we know it will be transformed into nature to restore biodiversity and conditions for life - in the countryside, but very much also in inland waters, fjords and rivers. This is a long-term change that will benefit future generations. This is a very concrete opportunity to take a long-term view of what kind of society we want to pass on to future generations.
At the same time, the vast majority of people have a relationship and an attitude to how their local area should be developed and concrete relationships to nature and places. The Green Tripartite is therefore an obvious opportunity to engage people in Denmark in local, democratic development processes that concern something concrete, understandable and important. And which can help to counteract polarization and paralysis and strengthen the collective power to act locally.
But how do we make the transition to more nature locally a public cause that mobilizes, engages and involves across generations? There is a need to mobilize forces, knowledge and experience through strengthened citizen involvement, democratic innovation and knowledge about systemic change. This ecosystem of actors must be brought into play in the concrete, local processes.
The Academy will contribute by connecting actors, developing a common language and images, and highlighting good cases that can inspire and strengthen collective action locally.
The welfare society exists and must be understood in the context of planetary boundaries. We have long debated "whether we can afford both green transition and welfare". We don't think this division makes sense, nor is it fruitful in discussions about how we develop our welfare society and drive the green transition.
We are concerned with how we can approach the development of our welfare society in a way that considers the well-being of the planet. In the big picture, it's about establishing an understanding that the well-being of humans and nature and other species cannot be separated. More specifically, it's about how we consider nature and our relationship with nature in social initiatives, in the health sector and in education and pedagogy. For example, nature is one of the places that many people use for exercise, and there is a strong link between access to (and relationship with) nature and quality of life.
The Academy can help connect actors working with welfare development and green transition and build bridges between perspectives and initiatives. We do this, for example, in the study "Mobilizing for Welfare", where we investigate what a welfare society model that takes planetary boundaries into account actually looks like.
We are facing an interwoven complex of planetary crises, all of which are the result of human impacts on nature and the ecosystems we are part of.
We've been so used to thinking of society, democracy and organization as something that concerns humans alone. But humans are also nature - and our well-being and lives are deeply dependent on the well-being of other species. At the same time, we feel how the forces of nature - such as floods and extreme weather - have a huge impact on human well-being.
How do we take this interconnectedness seriously in our democracy and social model? How can we bring the voice and perspective of other species into our decision-making processes in a way that they influence the decisions we make?
The Academy can help to highlight, experiment with and build capacity for organisations to include other species' perspectives in decision-making processes.
We can share experiences across the Academy members and together we can push for a better understanding of how to work with nature-inclusive governance. It is an agenda that is relevant both at the organizational level and in the overall conversation about the development of our democracy.
We believe that there is a great need to strengthen connections across disciplines and sectors in the green transition. If you want to talk further about how we strengthen collective action in the green transition, please contact Amanda Borg at amanda@afsi.dk.
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