SEED-SCALE describes a comprehensive theory of social change sometimes also categorized as social development theory. SEED-SCALE can be used both to tell how to implement change and/or it can be used to analyze social change. SEED-SCALE ’ s distinguishing feature is its focus on human energy as the primary currency that causes people to change behaviors. Normative thinking is that by allocating money to social programs (funding a health service, starting a micro-finance program, providing subsidies for agriculture, etc.) that intentional social action happens. SEED-SCALE does not deny the impact of budget driven projects. However, it suggests that a more available and sustainable approach is redirecting how people apply their energies. “ Money is powerful because other people want it or because every all want it… This means, among other things, that if it is taken to be the central factor in social change initiatives, those who do not have it (including countries, including people—the people who need it most) are powerless. ” Daniel C. Taylor, Carl E. Taylor, Jesse O. Taylor, ‘’ Empowerment on an Unstable Planet: From Seeds of Human Energy to a Scale of Global Change ’’ (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012) p.xiv SEED-SCALE notes that human energy is a resource that is already present, already being used in every community in the world. If the community exists, it has energy. The opportunity is to use that resource more effectively & timely. There are many types of relevant human energies: individual labor, cooperation, creativity, monitoring, learning, and the like.Daniel C. Taylor, Carl E. Taylor, Jesse O. Taylor, ‘’' Empowerment on an Unstable Planet: From Seeds of Human Energy to a Scale of Global Change ’’' (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012) SEED-SCALE is an application of emergence within Complexity Theory , articulating how social change "emerges" with socio-economic development specific to each context of society, economics, and natural environment shaped by the interaction of these relationships; noting that the socio-economic product is not the result of inputs to the system (classical development thinking) but is the result of how relationships form within the system as a result of principle interaction (emergence). SEED-SCALE builds out of the most forward economic thinking, such as former World Bank economist, Paul Collier, “ change in societies at the very bottom must come primarily from within. ” Paul Collier, ‘’ The Bottom Billion: Why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it ’’ (Oxford UK: Oxford University Press, 2007) p.xi Professor Dani Rodrik at Harvard, frames economic growth at the scale level as a consequence of growth aggregated from the local level, growing within the existing larger framework. Local growth occurs not because of inputs from outside but because it has figured out how to occur within the local situation of policies, stimuli, and resources.Dani Rodrik, ‘’ One Economics, Many Recipes: Globalization, Institutions, and Economic Growth ’’ (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007) History and origins The origins of SEED-SCALE began in UNICEF in 1992—when the then Executive Director James P. Grant was seeking a more accurate understanding of how to take successful pilot projects ( “seeds” ) and to extend these to national level impact ( “scale” ). From the initial 1992 UNICEF charge two publications resulted.Daniel Taylor and Carl E. Taylor Community Based Sustainable Human Development—Going to Scale with Self-reliant Social Development (New York: UNICEF, 1995).Carl E. Taylor. Aditi Desai, and Daniel Taylor “ Partnership for Social Development—A Casebook ” The Independent Task Force on Community Action for Social Development (Franklin, WV, Future Generations, and Johns Hopkins University Department of International Health, 1995) These publications were presented at the World Summit for Social Development, Copenhagen, March 1995. SEED-SCALE resides within the larger field of Emergence, Complexity Theory . The thesis being that social change occurs within the complex intersection of people ’ s values, economic dynamics, and environmental conditions (the socio-econo-info-biosphere), and that to either understand or to act in that complex world, answers do not directly follow from actions; they “emerge” out of interacting relationships in almost incomprehensible ways, obvious perhaps after the fact but impossible to predict ahead of time.John Holland, ‘’ Emergence: From chaos to order ’’ (New York: Basic Books, 1998) p. 224-227. Recent articulation of empowerment as basis of social change championed by Robert Chambers, who led in the development of Participatory Research and Actions (also called Participatory Rural Appraisal ) (PRA) “ astonished by the analytical abilities of poor people. Whether literate or not, whether children, women, or men, they showed that they could map, list, rank, score, and diagram better than professionals. ” Robert Chambers, ‘’ Whose Reality Counts, Putting the Last First ’’ (London: Intermediate Technology Development Group Publishing, 2000, p.xvii Key contributions to the thinking also came from Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) <ref> Gary Paul Green and Anna Haines, Asset Based Community Development, 2nd Edition ’’ (Thousand Oaks CA: Sage Publications 2008). </ref> Also the work of the Positive Deviance .Richard Pascale, Jerry Sternin, and Monique Sternin ‘’ The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World ’ s Toughest Problems ’’ (Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press, 2010) A feedback loop, a revolution of rising aspirations, gets started—where people ’ s hopes cause them to work, then that work produces returns, those returns prompt further work, and this circle calls more people in working with their aspirations. As actions get fulfilled and cause new aspirations, what unfolds is society using what it has, for what it wants, and now calling in resources and action from outside. Key principles Build from Success—Don ’ t try to fix failures (note: given that failures are complex eco-systems of individual and community expenditures or experiments with social development, failures should not be completely ignored but understood as historical reservoirs that may inform the successful strategies that the SEED-SCALE practitioner(s) are linking together to generate local change in the present) 3-way Partnership (Top-down, Bottom-up, and Outside-in)—Three types of partnerships are needed for sustainable development. One is Top-dawn, involving collaboration among community, government officials, and international financial providers. The other is Bottom-up, involving collaboration within a community to frame and act on priorities. The third is Outside-in, which includes involvment of academia and other development partners, such as the Civil Society organizations and NGOs. Decide from Evidence—Power Money Dogma not reliable answers Behavior Change is the Goal—Prescribed outputs can be faked Daniel C. Taylor, Carl E. Taylor, Jesse O. Taylor, ‘’ Empowerment on an Unstable Planet: From Seeds of Human Energy to a Scale of Global Change ’’ (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012) Daniel Taylor and Carl E. Taylor, ‘’ Just and Lasting Change: When communities own their futures ’’ (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002) Carl E. Taylor. Aditi Desai, and Daniel Taylor ‘’ Partnership for Social Development—A Casebook ’’ The Independent Task Force on Community Action for Social Development (Franklin, WV, Future Generations, and Johns Hopkins University Department of International Health, 1995) Daniel Taylor and Carl E. Taylor Community Based Sustainable Human Development—Going to Scale with Self-reliant Social Development '' (New York: UNICEF, 1995)
SEED-SCALE describes a comprehensive theory of social change sometimes also categorized as social development theory. SEED-SCALE can be used both to tell how to implement change and/or it can be used to analyze social change. SEED-SCALE ' s distinguishing feature is its focus on human energy as the primary currency that causes people to change behaviors. Normative thinking is that by allocating money to social programs (funding a health service, starting a micro-finance program, providing subsidies for agriculture, etc.) that intentional social action happens. SEED-SCALE does not deny the impact of budget driven projects. However, it suggests that a more available and sustainable approach is redirecting how people apply their energies. " Money is powerful because other people want it or because every all want it… This means, among other things, that if it is taken to be the central factor in social change initiatives, those who do not have it (including countries, including people—the people who need it most) are powerless. " Daniel C. Taylor, Carl E. Taylor, Jesse O. Taylor, Empowerment on an Unstable Planet: From Seeds of Human Energy to a Scale of Global Change (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012) p.xiv SEED-SCALE notes that human energy is a resource that is already present, already being used in every community in the world. If the community exists, it has energy. The opportunity is to use that resource more effectively & timely. There are many types of relevant human energies: individual labor, cooperation, creativity, monitoring, learning, and the like.Daniel C. Taylor, Carl E. Taylor, Jesse O. Taylor, Empowerment on an Unstable Planet: From Seeds of Human Energy to a Scale of Global Change (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012) SEED-SCALE is an application of emergence within complexity theory , articulating how social change "emerges" with socio-economic development specific to each context of society, economics, and natural environment shaped by the interaction of these relationships; noting that the socio-economic product is not the result of inputs to the system (classical development thinking) but is the result of how relationships form within the system as a result of principle interaction (emergence). SEED-SCALE builds out of the most forward economic thinking, such as former World Bank economist, Paul Collier, " change in societies at the very bottom must come primarily from within. " Paul Collier, The Bottom Billion: Why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it (Oxford UK: Oxford University Press, 2007) p.xi Professor Dani Rodrik at Harvard, frames economic growth at the scale level as a consequence of growth aggregated from the local level, growing within the existing larger framework. Local growth occurs not because of inputs from outside but because it has figured out how to occur within the local situation of policies, stimuli, and resources.Dani Rodrik, One Economics, Many Recipes: Globalization, Institutions, and Economic Growth (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007) History and origins The origins of SEED-SCALE began in UNICEF in 1992—when the then Executive Director James P. Grant was seeking a more accurate understanding of how to take successful pilot projects ( "seeds" ) and to extend these to national level impact ( "scale" ). From the initial 1992 UNICEF charge two publications resulted.Daniel Taylor and Carl E. Taylor Community Based Sustainable Human Development—Going to Scale with Self-reliant Social Development (New York: UNICEF, 1995).Carl E. Taylor. Aditi Desai, and Daniel Taylor " Partnership for Social Development—A Casebook " The Independent Task Force on Community Action for Social Development (Franklin, WV, Future Generations, and Johns Hopkins University Department of International Health, 1995) These publications were presented at the World Summit for Social Development, Copenhagen, March 1995. SEED-SCALE resides within the larger field of emergence and complexity theory . The thesis is that social change occurs within the complex intersection of people ' s values, economic dynamics, and environmental conditions (the socio-econo-info-biosphere), and that to either understand or to act in that complex world, answers do not directly follow from actions; they "emerge" out of interacting relationships in almost incomprehensible ways, obvious perhaps after the fact but impossible to predict ahead of time.John Holland, Emergence: From chaos to order (New York: Basic Books, 1998) p. 224-227. Recent articulation of empowerment as basis of social change championed by Robert Chambers, who led in the development of participatory research and action (also called participatory rural appraisal ) (PRA) " astonished by the analytical abilities of poor people. Whether literate or not, whether children, women, or men, they showed that they could map, list, rank, score, and diagram better than professionals. " Robert Chambers, Whose Reality Counts, Putting the Last First (London: Intermediate Technology Development Group Publishing, 2000, p.xvii Key contributions to the thinking also came from asset-based community development (ABCD) Gary Paul Green and Anna Haines, Asset Based Community Development, 2nd Edition (Thousand Oaks CA: Sage Publications 2008). and the theory of positive deviance .Richard Pascale, Jerry Sternin, and Monique Sternin The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World ' s Toughest Problems (Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press, 2010) A feedback loop, a revolution of rising aspirations, gets started—where people ' s hopes cause them to work, then that work produces returns, those returns prompt further work, and this circle calls more people in working with their aspirations. As actions get fulfilled and cause new aspirations, what unfolds is society using what it has, for what it wants, and now calling in resources and action from outside. Key principles Build from Success—Don ' t try to fix failures (note: given that failures are complex eco-systems of individual and community expenditures or experiments with social development, failures should not be completely ignored but understood as historical reservoirs that may inform the successful strategies that the SEED-SCALE practitioner(s) are linking together to generate local change in the present) 3-way Partnership (Top-down, Bottom-up, and Outside-in)—Three types of partnerships are needed for sustainable development. One is Top-dawn, involving collaboration among community, government officials, and international financial providers. The other is Bottom-up, involving collaboration within a community to frame and act on priorities. The third is Outside-in, which includes involvment of academia and other development partners, such as the Civil Society organizations and NGOs. Decide from Evidence—Power Money Dogma not reliable answers Behavior Change is the Goal—Prescribed outputs can be faked Daniel C. Taylor, Carl E. Taylor, Jesse O. Taylor, Empowerment on an Unstable Planet: From Seeds of Human Energy to a Scale of Global Change (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012) Daniel Taylor and Carl E. Taylor, Just and Lasting Change: When communities own their futures (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002) Carl E. Taylor. Aditi Desai, and Daniel Taylor Partnership for Social Development—A Casebook The Independent Task Force on Community Action for Social Development (Franklin, WV, Future Generations, and Johns Hopkins University Department of International Health, 1995) Daniel Taylor and Carl E. Taylor Community Based Sustainable Human Development—Going to Scale with Self-reliant Social Development (New York: UNICEF, 1995)
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