ICS Working Paper Nº1/2018

ICS W O R K I N G P A P E R S 2018 22 5. Final remarks In theory, CBIs have an undeniable potential positive role in leveraging socio-ecological transitions towards sustainability. CBIs potential importance is closely tied to the ability, or lack thereof, of the dominant system to respond to upcoming social and CC challenges. The degree of their influence on societal change, regardless of how sound the underpinning theoretical rationale might be, is nonetheless challenged as empirical data is collected and more detailed critical analysis settles in. Notwithstanding, we understand CBIs as highly context-dependent niche actors whose maximum impact cannot be achieved solely on their own merits, as the regime change challenges CBIs are facing are literally unsurmountable. This is not a dismissal of CBIs’ value and potential contribution, but rather a call for a reframing of how they ought to be perceived. As it stands, we see three possible scenarios for CBIs’ future, independent of their physical location. The first, as undesirable as we may find it, is their steady atrophy and consequent extinction, as the key actors driving them forward either lose heart or run out of resources, in face of the resistance to change of the dominant regime. The second scenario is a bittersweet one where CBIs will linger on in somewhat similar variations of their current nature, nevertheless remaining solely a laboratory of social innovation alternative practices and simultaneously an untapped resource for wider societal change. The third scenario, the one we perceive as desirable, is that this CBI-related potential for social innovation is acknowledged enough for existing institutional structures to allow it in, either through the creation of specific CBI support structures or a simple adaptation of already existing policy solutions. There are two major ways in which this third and last scenario can materialise. On the one hand, existing institutional infrastructures take the lead and act as a catalyst for the inclusion of CBI social innovation into the wider system. On the other, CBIs start to mobilise and claim to give their input towards a wider socio-ecological transition via the existing institutional infrastructure. As evidence shows, the first of these options seems at the current date unrealistic. The spotlight falls therefore on the second option. Thus, when we ponder its implications, the crucial issue becomes how CBIs can attain a greater role in leveraging a shift in those existing institutional infrastructures. In a nutshell, in the Portuguese case, we feel they must gain a political voice. And to do so, two key obstacles must be tackled head on. Sociopolitical Visibility. Portuguese CBI landscape dynamics show that although CBIs have been gaining ground in numbers and diversity, they remain largely invisible to the public eye. This mirrors their dispersion and lack of networking and politicisation, which in turn prevents. Portuguese CBIs to fully embrace their potential as active change actors in the sense of advancing the replication and scale-up of their practices, ideas, and values via turning into political and visible actors and societal champions for a socio-ecological transition towards sustainability. However, the latter is a recent societal dynamic that still has not taken root in Portugal. What we observe today are the first avant-garde efforts of collaboration, replication and embeddedness with a large room for potential yet to be explored. In this pioneering