We explore how social innovations challenge and shape power relations in societal transformations.

The challenges faced today – ecological, economic, and social – are deeply interconnected. To tackle these challenges, technology alone is not sufficient. Social innovations are new ways of doing, thinking and organizing that change social relations, and can have the potential to transform society.

Across Europe, many people are experimenting with alternative futures in the sharing economy, eco-communities, decentralized energy, and participatory democracy. But in their ambition to become transformative, social innovations face many dilemmas and obstacles, such as reproducing the very structures that they aim to change.

POTRANSI is a 5-year research project that approaches social innovation and transformation from a power perspective, in collaboration between academics and practitioners. We study how social innovations can reshape power relations in the hope of contributing towards more just and sustainable societies.