Social innovation and Turkey: Potentials, dynamics and the role of the state in promoting socially innovative activities

With a particular focus on Turkey, this study explores dynamics, potentials and current state of social innovation (SI) while revealing the role of government in fostering SI in Turkey. In this context, SI ecosystem and underpinning policies in a number of benchmark countries are examined in details. Along with that, the study address the cruciality of SI in terms of social policies by unearthing respective social innovative initiatives in Turkey for the first time. With a view to analyze the possible role of the government in supporting SI in Turkey, 25 semi-structured interviews have been undertaken and examined. The qualitative analysis of the interviews and investigation of related literature revealed that; the concept of SI in Turkey is to a great extend unknown although a number of examples exist; the development pace of SI in Turkey can be regarded as logy compared to other developing countries; SI needs to be handled as a state-of-art concept in addressing and overcoming social needs and challenges while fostering human and social progress in Turkey; and the Turkish government is required to act as catalyst during the development phase of SI by introducing new policy instruments and support mechanisms. In the context of the study, "Social Innovation Road Map" in the form of a full-fledged guidance has been developed and introduced with a view to illustrate the ways to institutionalize and proliferate SI in Turkey. In the light of the field studies and evaluations, the SI Road Map proposes measures including; the determination of sub-SI fields and update of respective policy papers and strategies accordingly; forming relevant legal infrastructure; building up illustrative social innovation clusters; introducing innovative financing instruments addressing SI and social entrepreneurship; ensuring the utilization of non-monetary public resources in support of SI and setting up SI labs in public institutions.