Organising social intervention networks

In 2012, I published a book called Frontrunners in action!—It was a call to action for frontrunners. The book laid out radical participatory methods for local sustainable innovation. It allowed me and my colleagues from our social enterprise—Mister Lion—to intervene in a wide range of societal transitions. These include:

• revisiting social inequity in the flourishing city of Groningen;

• exploring pathways towards social empowerment in Delfzijl (which is considered a ‘deprived area’);

• supporting citizen- and professional-based old-age care in North-Holland during budget cuts;

• facilitating inclusive employment in the formal industrial Zaan district;

• exploring sustainable mobility living labs in the medieval city of Ghent;

• reconnecting farmers, policymakers and citizens for sustainable agriculture in the South of Holland;

• exploring new research practices in the field animal free innovation in biomedical research. 

I have now begun wondering how my own concepts and methodologies—like those I had presented in that first book—might in fact blind me at times, as much as they have enabled change to happen. With this question in mind, I embrace being a member of this research-in-action community to re-visit experiences again and again, whilst the idea for a new book is growing in me.