ABSTRACT
The core question underlying this book is: ‘How can social research be turned into social or indeed “integral” innovation?’ We ask this question because there is a distinct lack of social innovation coming out of social research, on the one hand, and a desperate need for innovation in most sectors of society, on the other. In this book, therefore, we address social scientists, students and practitioners who want to become innovators in the social and economic arena by applying Integral Research and innovation to their research and development work. We believe that if this takes place, university social sciences departments around the world will regain their rightful place as sources of knowledge creation, and ultimately social innovation, dealing with burning issues that are particular to their society, rather than delegating that role to corporate research and development (R&D) departments on the one hand and the natural sciences on the other. In research terms, as in ‘real life’, it is the Western and the Northern approaches that dominate (with some exceptions), while the Southern and Eastern ones have been left out. One of our core arguments is that this is the reason why most research fails to lead to innovation. We also reconnect with the social philosophies which are vital for all research. All too often we fail to recognize the philosophical foundations of research methodologies, which in most social science research are disconnected from the research content. In the rare cases where philosophies are recognized, it is mostly those representing the North and West; philosophers from the East and South, whose methodological approaches are more closely linked to their culture and its issues, are left out. The story of one of us (Ronnie Lessem) serves as a representative tale of a social researcher who initially involved himself in the Western and Northern worlds, while bypassing (for a while) his own southern (African) home ground, even though it was in desperate need of social innovation. In this one researcher’s lifetime is embodied the global phenomenon, which many of you might be experiencing, of a left-out South and East. Now Ronnie, together with fellow author Alexander, is seeking to make up for it. The route we take towards Integral Research and innovation is a fourfold one, encompassing Southern and Eastern, as well as Northern and Western, paths, each of which has a fourfold, and double layered, static as well as research-to-innovation trajectory. Such an approach to Integral Research is potentially embodied in an Integral University, lodged within a particular culture and society, and inherently transdisciplinary in its approach to social science and the humanities.
