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In an inversion of what is usually presented as economic innovation, this case explores the social conditions that allowed the joint stock model to grow and flourish in the Northern Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries. Fuelling the period known as the Dutch Golden Age, the joint stock model allowed for significant, revolutionary shifts in resource flows, and ultimately reinforced an actual Dutch revolution against Spanish colonial authorities. This case illustrates the cross-sectoral requirements for a social innovation to take hold and scale, and how these shifts ripple throughout a society, leaving little untouched.

This chapter summarizes the interesting patterns that characterize the evolution of social innovation over time. Social innovations that succeed in transforming intractable problem domains take time: these cases span from seventy to over two hundred years. They are ignited by new social philosophies in most cases, new products or technological inventions in others. Through the activities of a relay team of social and institutional entrepreneurs, those original ideas and initiatives combine and recombine over time with other “adjacent” streams of activity, often in an attempt to secure additional resources of power or capital. As a result most successful social innovations are a collection of elements, some of which are in tension with each other. It is these tensions that continue to drive the evolution of the innovations. This chapter concludes with identification of aspects of early stage social innovations that are key to identifying those with transformative potential.

This chapter explores the emergence of the duty to consult and accommodate as a social innovation in Canada. Specifically, the evolution of authority over lands in Canada is traced through three major phases, beginning from the Seven Years War: (1) shared authority by multiple sovereign Aboriginal nations; (2) dominance by the Crown/Canadian government; and (3) recognition of Aboriginal title and the legal duty to consult and accommodate. This historical narrative is intended both to demonstrate the power of social phenomena around land and provide analysis of the Haida decision as a recent tipping point. Examples of both the adjacent possible and prophetic starting conditions emerged through the research as well as several related problem domains – including treaty negotiations, resource development and reconciliation – ripe for further social innovation.