The Rise of the Hybrid Domain: Collaborative Governance for Social Innovation

By conceptualizing the rise of the hybrid domain as an emerging institutional form that overlaps public and private interests, this book explores how corporations, states, and civil society organizations develop common agendas, despite the differences in their primary objectives. Using evidence from India, it examines various cases of social innovation in education, energy, health, and finance, which offer solutions for some of the most pressing social challenges of the twenty-first century. Yuko Aoyama and Balaji Parthasarathy position social innovation at the intersection of changing state-market relations, institutional design, and technological innovation. By demonstrating how corporations, social entrepreneurs, and social finance increasingly cross borders to devise local solutions with global technologies, this book illustrates how collaborative governance can serve as a useful alternative to blend economic and social objectives by overriding organizational boundaries which were previously considered ideologically incompatible and, therefore, unbridgeable. Engaging with the question of collective capacity building, this book will be of interest to a broad and multi-disciplinary audience, from those studying innovation, science and technology policy, and entrepreneurship, to those working in international governance and development.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Introduction 2. Rescaling Collective Action for Governance in the 21st Century 3. Bridging the State-Market Divide: The Hybrid Domain 4. Social Innovation in Global Contexts 5. From States and Markets to Inclusive Development: Contexts for Social Innovation in India 6. Designing Solutions for “Wicked Problems” 7. Technologies, Designs, Stakeholders and Solutions: Case Studies from India 8. Emerging Organizational Forms of the Hybrid Domain: Domain Flexibility 9. Emerging Organizational Forms of the Hybrid Domain: Scalar Flexibility 10. Conclusions Index

About the Author :
Yuko Aoyama, Professor of Geography, Graduate School of Geography, Clark University, US with Balaji Parthasarathy, Professor, International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore, India

Review :
‘Hybrid domain is yet another parsimoniously treated aspect of governance and the authors must be commended for successfully elaborating on the topic. A discussion on a subject like this is particularly useful to address some of the challenges faced by the most underdeveloped parts of the world.’ ‘A wicked account of how societies are solving wicked problems! In this authoritative book, Aoyama and Parthasarathy illuminate the nuanced interplay between public and private actors as they seek collaborative solutions to large-scale social problems. Anyone who cares about changing the world will find much to relish here, from the rigorous conception of the hybrid domain to the incisive perspectives of real-world leaders. A must read!’ ‘This book provides a strong conceptualization of the space where most interventions have been socially and locally effective and strategies of an organizational form that creates impact. It pulls together the ideal of inter-connectedness of social, economic and political processes. It also highlights the secular role of technology in this conceptualization. Those who are searching for pointers to design organizations of the future that are socially impactful and yet competitive, must pay attention to the findings of this book.’ ‘This book makes a timely contribution to currently vibrant debates in economic geography on the shifting articulations linking states and markets, on the presence and significance of more-than-capitalist economic practices, and on the potential of “learning from the south”. The authors’ conceptualization of a hybrid domain, and their analysis of its nature in India, provide theoretical and empirical arguments worthy of careful study, reflection and analysis.’ ‘In this brilliant and original book, Aoyama and Parthasarathy identify a new paradigm of hybrid governance that offers potential to address the chronic challenges of poverty and development. Challenging ideological conceptions of the state-market dichotomy, the authors reconceptualize governance as collective action driven by stakeholders experimenting with solutions that bridge public, private, and civil society domains. This book chronicles the most creative social problem-solving occurring today, and is a must read for social innovators around the globe.’ ‘In this illuminating book, Aoyama and Parthasarathy investigate the domain lying between states and markets. They offer a very convincing conceptualization of what they define as hybrid domain, also providing a wealth of empirical evidence on the vigorous world of social innovation in India. This is a must read for anyone with an interest in the future of global socio-economic development.’ ‘The Rise of the Hybrid Domain offers an intriguing conceptual discussion that is qualified through an extensive empirical study on India.’ ‘Yuko Aoyama and Balaji Parthasarathy’s The Rise of the Hybrid Domain is a compelling book that not only eplores cutting-edge empirical aspects of globalization, but also challenges broader conceptualization within political economy—especially the public–private divide. This book contains fascinating insights through in-depth interview and survey research into the dynamic activities of foreign multinationals in India, including their engagement with nongovernmental organizations to develop social innovations for pressing twenty-first-century development challenges. The book is highly recommended for anyone interested in social innovation, in how economic globalization plays out in contemporary India, as well as for business and management fields related to corporate and social responsibility and the base-of-the-pyramid market.'