‘Mission: Possible’: Empowerment through Social-Symbolic Social Innovation

While much of the research on social innovation in developing contexts focuses on the process and how it creates value, less is known about how social innovators navigate paradoxes arising from institutional and socio-cultural conditions to empower communities and drive change. This article seeks to reshape understanding of social innovation processes by utilising the social-symbolic work theory to demonstrate how social innovation occurs at the intersection of international development agendas and local development needs. To address the research question, we draw on a qualitative research method focusing on a case study of a programme that trains midwives/nurses to provide sexual and reproductive health in local communities. We theorise these actors as ‘social-symbolic social innovators’ who overcome challenges to empower underprivileged women in west/central Africa and southeast Asia to access services. Our study highlights the crucial role of these community midwives, acting as either ‘boundary spanners’ or ‘social innovators’ in overcoming institutional paradoxes and co-creating social-symbolic work through their shared identity, agency and goals.