【世界经济论坛】未来是集体的：推进集体社会创新，应对社会最大挑战-2025.3_37页_8mb

Summary of "The Future is Collective: Advancing Collective Social Innovation to Address Society's Biggest Challenges"

Core Content

This report explores the concept of collective social innovation as a powerful and necessary approach to tackle the complex and interconnected social challenges of today. It highlights the growing importance of collective action in a world marked by increasing polarization, systemic inequalities, and the need for sustainable, large-scale change. The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, through its initiatives and convenings, has identified and documented the work of collective social innovators—individuals and groups who lead, orchestrate, or facilitate networks of organizations to create transformative social impact.

Main Points and Key Insights

1. What is Collective Social Innovation?

• Collective social innovators are cross-sector leaders who bring together diverse stakeholders to co-create solutions.
• They focus on systemic impact rather than short-term fixes, and their work is characterized by shared ownership, inclusivity, and flexibility.
• Their approach is distinct from traditional programmatic interventions and is well-suited to addressing complex, interconnected challenges.

2. Why Collective Social Innovation Matters Now

• Polycrisis and increasing societal polarization have made it more urgent to work across differences.
• The interconnectedness of global issues requires new forms of organizing that can incorporate diverse perspectives and bridge institutional divides.
• Digital technologies have enabled new modes of collaboration, making collective action more scalable and impactful.

3. Five Shared Values of Collective Social Innovation

• Value 1: Co-creation with diverse stakeholders
  Ensuring a wide range of voices, including those of marginalized groups, are included in the problem-solving process.
• Value 2: Commitment to systemic impact
  Focusing on root causes rather than symptoms, and prioritizing long-term, sustainable change.
• Value 3: Flexibility through anticipation and learning
  Embracing emergence and failure as part of the innovation process, and adapting strategies based on local needs and context.
• Value 4: Restoring agency of those closest to the issues
  Centering the lived experiences of communities and ensuring that solutions are culturally and contextually appropriate.
• Value 5: Respect and balance in human-nature relationships
  Recognizing the interconnectedness of people and the planet, and promoting sustainable, regenerative development.

4. The Role of Stakeholders

• Partners and funders should support collective work by reducing fragmentation and investing in ecosystem building.
• Government and policy-makers can align interests, access data, and enable population-level scale.
• Collective social innovators are working to create new narratives, shared platforms, and supportive infrastructures that facilitate collective action.

5. The Need for Systemic Change

• The current model of social innovation has been dominated by single-organization approaches, which often fail to address the complexity of modern challenges.
• There is a growing recognition that collective social innovation is essential for achieving transformational change and addressing systemic inequalities.

Case Studies and Learnings

• The report draws on insights from 40 participants at the Schwab Foundation's Collective Action Convening in 2024, including 17 in-depth interviews and 10 detailed case studies.
• These case studies showcase the diverse strategies, governance models, and geographies of collective social innovation efforts.
• The findings reveal that collective work enables more effective resource allocation, policy shaping, and impact measurement through shared platforms and data.

Conclusion

The report emphasizes that humanity's greatest strength lies in its ability to collaborate across sectors, disciplines, and geographies. It calls for a shift in how we think about innovation and impact, advocating for a new paradigm that values collective action as a core function of social change. By fostering trust, inclusivity, and systemic thinking, collective social innovation can help build a more just, equitable, and sustainable future.

Call to Action

• The Schwab Foundation invites stakeholders to embrace and support collective social innovation.
• It encourages collaboration, experimentation, and learning across diverse groups to drive transformative progress.
• The time to harness the full potential of collective action is now, as it offers a pragmatic and inclusive path to addressing the world's most pressing challenges.