Many people are wrong about how to define what is social impact. How you define social impact matters. People, the future and communities are not predictable. Most views of social impact and the strategies based on that pretend that people are little more than robots following rules. That one mistake costs governments, charities and social investors countless millions every year.
Key Takeaway On What is Social Impact
Social impact is about the managing the complex ways people and communities interact. People frequently make the mistake of thinking social impact is predictable, costing millions in wasted efforts. Truly understanding and improving social impact means recognising it’s emergent nature and focusing on creating conditions that allow positive change to occur naturally, rather than enforcing rigid plans.
If we want to take a scientific approach to improving our social impact we need to really understand what social impact is and how it happens.
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Defining What is Social Impact?
Social Impact is the emergent change in a community, connected to an action. Social impact encompasses both the positive and negative effects on people’s health, well-being, and relationships.
J-P Crofton
This is how we define social impact. Read on to see how you can empower your change through better understanding.
Why it is Important to Define What is Social Impact
What is Social Impact is, is as important now as it has ever been. The actions of humans are destabilising the planet, causing untold suffering to many millions. We are seeing increased inequalities for more than 70% of the population according to the UN.
At the same time, we are seeing declining health and quality of life. All as a result of our society’s behaviour. But how do we do it? We need to understand what social impact is. It’s vital to improve our science and understanding of social impact, so that we can enhance our positive social impact on the world. Our future depends on it, as we need to change the impacts of human behaviour. We cannot carry on as we are.
Why is it Difficult to Define Social Impact?
The reason why defining what is social impact is difficult is that most definitions assume there is direct cause and effect. But people are not robots following a process. Or unquestioningly following the rules imposed upon us. It’s easy to fall into thinking what we are taught in school is the only valid way to think about things.
We are told to reduce things down to a simple logic. Problems, process and solution, this is what is called ‘ reductionism ‘. The idea is that we can understand everything in the world and solve every problem by breaking it up into little bits. (Not coincidentally, this also allows everything to be marked wrong or right). Then using those bits to predict what will happen. This is great for making things, but usually not a good way of thinking about people. You can’t take a human out of a community, give him a prod and know exactly how he will react.
What Social Impact is, denotes an Emergent Problem
A simple example of what is social impact occurs when you give a couple of children a new toy. Let’s say they are a brother and sister. We can never be quite sure what they will do with it. Will they share it, Will they break it or will it be their best toy ever? How often will they play with it? What stories do they make together about it? What will they learn and what impact that might have on their future behaviour?
Give 2 other kids the same toy and you will almost certainly end up with different results. People are complex and unpredictable. This unknowable output from the interaction of things combining has a name in science ‘emergence’.
What is Emergence?
Emergence occurs when something (usually) at a larger scale, has different properties from the things that make it up. You can’t look at the parts and be able to understand from them what the emergent property would be. This is like your brain producing consciousness. Or termites producing a nest. You can’t look at any cell and find consciousness. You cant look at any number of termites and be able to tell what their nest will look like.
Emergence is a wonderful, fascinating phenomenon that often occurs when life interacts together. Similarly, social change emerges from the interaction between humans. It doesn’t exist in humans. Thus, social impact must be emergent.
Why ‘Emergence’ Defines What Social Impact is
Why does emergence happen? It is the relationships between things that create emergent phenomena. In human society, everything is connected to everything else. We are connected to our friends and families who are connected to our communities. Communities are connected to cities, then countries, and ultimately to everyone else in the world. This deep interconnectivity means that you can’t isolate one part of the system without affecting the whole system. We have seen with global supply chain issues. How changes in one place like a boat getting stuck in a canal can ripple across the entire world and affect our lives.
Emergence comes out of interactions of the parts of a system that cannot be deconstructed to an individual. We cannot take a social system apart in order to understand what happened with social impact. You cannot isolate a human and predict a social system.
Understanding Emergent Social Impact
Whilst there may be many factors in emergence. The fact that we have seen cities emerge repeatedly, and independently in different parts of the world tells us that their emergence is not entirely random. Certain factors interact to create a stable place for a city to grow and thrive. (E.g. access to food and water and to paths of trade). By better understanding the nature of cities we can better create and repeat those circumstances. Meaning that we now have the power to choose where we build future cities, confident they will thrive. The same is also true for all kinds of social phenomenon which emerge in many places according to circumstances.
A Web of Interactions Often Define Social Impact
Social impact may be emergent, but we can create situations where the impact is most likely to occur. What are the things that create of social impact? We encourage the interactions to occur that may result in the desired outcome. The outcome of giving a child a new toy may be a little unpredictable, so we create the circumstances, to make it more likely to be beneficial.
Christmas is as much about the run up as the actual day building up anticipation excitement and time to play. Even the process of wrapping the toy is aimed at creating a circumstance of building up those things then starting the experience with a moment of joy (hopefully). It could be argued the whole connotation of the Father Christmas thing is really about building excitement and anticipation to maxmise the chance of happiness.
There is no root cause. Just a series of things when coming together that create those moments of joy. Sometimes all the elements are there and the joy happens. Sometimes the joy happens without many of the elements. What we are trying to do is create the circumstances for the interactions to take place that enables and amplifies the desired transformation for impact. Such as when the child is happy we celebrate with them.
How Might We Better Define What is Social Impact?
We need to work out how we might define what is social impact. If social impact is emergent it makes defining social impact something of a challenge. It is like saying the answer is 12, but not knowing the question. (Although if I said the answer was 42, you probably would)
Social impact can not be isolated from the community from people from the world. It is deeply interconnected to our humanity. It also cannot be disconnected from the social history of people. To know if it was a change it also has to be rooted in the history of the system. We can never isolate the change from the system or even be sure if the change is replicable.
This at least give us a reference point to say what is social impact. It must be rooted in the past, but at the same time be different from it. However, to be useful and be social. It can not be a 1 off impact, which means it would be impossible to distinguish from randomness. The concept of people moving from one niche of existence to another is also hugely helpful. Explaining why social change is often so difficult, because of the energy and information costs of changing niches. Finally, we need it to be intentional to be of meaningful use. This gives us the bounds to define what is social impact.
What is Social Impact?
“Social Impact is the emergent change in a community, connected to an action. Social impact encompasses both the positive and negative effects on people’s health, well-being, and relationships.”
J-P Crofton
What is the Essence of What is Social Impact?
To result in these changes these conditions also do not have to be physical. It does not need to be caused by a product. social impact is is not just an activity. Social impact is the emergent effect. A religion (or any belief structure e.g. political) is a social innovation that results in a social impact. Religion does not start with an object or a well-managed ‘change process’’. If religions, beliefs and politics have social impacts then that means many definitions of social impact don’t fit.
Some of the biggest changes in society have come from learning new skills and changing beliefs. They are often an essential part of making up what is social impact, yet in most definitions, these are excluded.
The flaw of thinking of what is social impact, as a separately defined process blinds us to what it actually is and what we can do to address those issues.
How Do We Create Social Impact?
We can create social impact through action, spreading social innovation, creating social projects and creating social interventions. As social impact is somewhat unpredictable, the best approach is to create social value over time. Social value might be addressing people’s needs for food, shelter, health and wellbeing. This social value will accumulate over time and give the best possible chance for social impact to consistently emerge. This chain of social value leading to social impact can be seen as a flow of change.
Emerging New Approaches to What is Social Impact
At the heart of this blog is an idea. When we want to make changes that benefit people, we need to move away from traditional production line approaches to social investment, change management, and project management. The idea that I will invest this to do x that will result in y impact is often not the reality of social systems. Instead, we want to create the conditions for the changes we want to emerge.
We need to design new ways of creating social impact projects, as a force for good. Which takes account of the reality, and emergent power of humans to achieve new things. I’ve created a complete guide to creating social impact projects if you would like to learn more.
What are the Different types of Social Impact?
Social impact means a lot of different things to a wide range of people. There are wide range of things to which social impact give meaning and intention. It refers to the effect of any activity on the social fabric of the community and well being of the individuals and families. It can encompass a wide range of areas including, health, education, economic development, environmental sustainability, and social cohesion. Each type of social impact can have positive or negative outcomes.
Summary of the Types of Social Impact:
- Economic Impact: This involves changes in the economic status or economic opportunities within a community. For Example; job creation, income generation, and economic growth.
- Environmental Impact: The effects on the natural environment on our one beloved planet, such as improvements or degradation resulting from activities. This includes conservation efforts, pollution reduction, and sustainability initiatives. As well as of course regreening programmes.
- Health Impact: Influences on the physical and mental health of individuals, including access to healthcare, improvements in health outcomes, and the reduction and prevalence of diseases.
- Educational Impact: The effect on educational access, quality, and outcomes for individuals and communities. This includes literacy rates, knowledge and skill development.
- Social and Cultural Impact: The effects on social relationships, cohesion, and cultural identity. This includes community development, preservation of cultural heritage, and promotion of social equity and inclusion.
- Technological Impact: The effects of technological advancements on society, including access to technology, digital literacy, and the digital divide. Arguable this in itself is only an impact in that it can impact all the above.
How the Meaning of Social Impact has Changed Over Time
Surprisingly, the definition of social impact has changed over time. The meaning of Social impact itself has been socially impacted by the meaning of social impact. That may sound a little confusing. If i could make myself a bit better understood: the way that social impact has been defined has been changed by the different ways that people when doing social impact understand and define social impact.
The concept of social impact has evolved significantly over time from a narrow focus on philanthropy and charitable acts (doing good to others) to a broader understanding. This broader understanding is much more far reaching in that it encompasses sustainable development, corporate social responsibility (CSR). It involves entire system change across social, economic, and environmental domains.
Initially, social impact was mainly focused on direct aid and relief provided by philanthropists, nonprofits and religious organisations to address immediate needs. As societies advanced, there was a shift towards creating sustainable solutions to societal problems, emphasising the importance of long-term strategies rather than temporary relief extending all the way to global problems affecting entire of humanity. Rather different from it’s relatively humble beginnings of of well meaning people giving handouts to those in need.
I also think it reflects the fact that as we have practiced social impact, we have found that human social systems have no edges, Fundamentally, in some way everything is connected to everything else. Social impact in a very real way is connected to the entire of humanity. What is social impact? It’s means answering the fundamental question of how we want to be human.
Frequently Asked Questions:
What is a Social Impact Project?
A social impact project is a deliberate change that aims to make society better by tackling problems affecting communities, like inequality or poor mental health. Unlike typical projects that have a clear end and specific steps, social projects deal with tricky issues that don’t have easy solutions. They need to be flexible and keep learning to really make a difference.
If you would like to learn more please read my blog article on what is a social project?
What is Negative Social Impact?
Negative social impact refers to the adverse changes in a community or society resulting from actions that deteriorate people’s quality of life, health, well-being, or social relationships. It typically reflects harm or detriment to societal norms, structures, or functions, leading to issues like increased inequality, environmental degradation, or community disruption.
What is the Meaning of Social Impact Development?
Social impact development aims to create positive difference in society through, projects initiatives and policies. This can include efforts to improve community well-being, environmental sustainability, education, health, and economic opportunities.
What Are Examples of Social Impact?
Social impact can be both positive and negative. Positive examples include improving public health through vaccination programs and supporting economic growth by empowering small businesses. On the negative side, industrial pollution can harm the environment and community health, and social media misuse can lead to privacy invasions and mental health issues.
What is the Meaning of Social Impact Work?
Social impact work is about making positive changes in society. It involves efforts to solve problems like poverty, improve education and health, promote fairness, and protect the environment. The goal is to help people and make the world a better place.
What is the Meaning of Social Implications?
Social implications are the effects that actions or events have on people and society, ranging from how we interact with each other to overall community well-being. These effects can be positive or negative. As well as being intentional or accidental.
What is Social Impact in Business
Social impact In business is the effect a company’s activities have on the health and well-being of the community and wider society. It encompasses both positive contributions, such as job creation, community development, and sustainable practices. As well as negative outcomes, like environmental harm or social inequality. Businesses increasingly measure and report their social impact as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts.
Conclusion
Traditional definitions fall short when capturing the essence of what is social impact. It’s less about linear cause and effect as social systems are unpredictable. It’s more often about creating the conditions for change within complex systems. By understanding emergence and understanding how social value is created and used, we can create projects that nurture positive, enduring changes for human wellbeing. Let’s enable and empower people’s ability to learn and adapt and use it to create a better world.
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