Strategising social innovation paradoxes: four faces of energy citizenship

Social innovation (SI) is an increasingly prominent area of innovation. Involving changes in social relations, SI practice is pervaded with tensions and apparent paradoxes, however. The ‘productive use of paradox’ has been articulated theoretically and demonstrated empirically, but much remains to be elaborated in terms of SI strategies. This contribution explores the SI paradoxes from a paradox management angle. Striving for conceptual insight with empirical concreteness, the analysis invokes the example of energy citizenship. Defined as a shift from passive consumerism towards active political engagement with energy systems, it harbours several tensions. Building on empirical investigations in Belgium, we discuss and strategise four contrasting manifestations of energy citizenship. This empirical diversity helps to showcase paradoxes pertaining to citizenship, intermediation, institutionalisation and materiality. The analysis combines insights from social innovation scholarship, critical innovation studies and governance research to situate these paradoxes in wider SI discussions. Comparing paradox-handling strategies within and across energy citizenship examples, we unpack and nuance the idea of paradoxes as the ‘working substance’ of social innovation. Practically, this can mean many different things: Apart from raising awareness about fundamental societal tensions, it also may involve debunking false dichotomies, organising multi-level governance or helping individuals cope with lived contradictions.