Do we need utopia for a theory of social innovation as social change?

This chapter introduces social innovation (SI) as a concept of social change. After introducing conceptual work of recent years that situates SI in a democratic tradition of systemic change, particularly Transformative Social Innovation theory, we explore the relevance of utopia as additional element of a theory of social innovation as social change. While multi-level system approaches try to provide analytical tools to measure the impact of SI efforts over time they do not elaborate enough on the role of initial motivations, worldviews and hopes of social actors who decide to engage in SI processes, inspired by dreams and visions of alternatives. Human desire and imagined possibilities are considered key drivers of action but they are under-estimated in SI research with transformational interest. To bring their role to the fore we suggest working with Levitas’ distinction of content, functions and form of utopia to help operationalise the utopian dimension in relation to motivations and goals of SI. Utopia helps to formulate and reformulate a critique of the present, which can motivate SI but in Levitas’ approach it also encourages ongoing critical reflection on change actions and efforts. Used in a theory of change together with more system-centered approaches like TSI we make a conceptually derived argument that utopia can help towards a more integrated understanding of SI and social change by keeping focus on the role of actors throughout SI process and outcomes.