# The Rise of the Reluctant Innovator

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/books/the-rise-of-the-reluctant-innovator/
- Published: 2013-12-30T17:53:00+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**This book features the stories of 10 social innovators from around the world. 
One of them is Laura Stachel, founder of WE CARE Solar, which designs portable solar-
lighting kits for maternity wards. Now Solar Suitcases save the lives of mothers
and newborns throughout the developing world.**

The book and [reluctantinnovation.com](http://www.reluctantinnovation.com) website
were made possible by crowdfunding through the RSA, personal funds and a donation
from a US foundation.

Classes in social innovation, social entrepreneurship and design thinking have become
increasingly popular in recent years. On the one hand, this might be seen as a good
thing. After all, the world needs as many smart, engaged citizens as it can get,
particularly when you consider the multitude of challenges we face as a planet.

But does a career in social change really begin in the classroom, or out in the 
real world? How much social change is planned, and how much accidental? And which
approach tends to lead to the most meaningful, lasting or impactful solutions?

With a foreword from **Archbishop Desmond Tutu**, “The Rise of the Reluctant Innovator”
provides a welcome challenge to conventional wisdom in social entrepreneurship. 
It highlights the personal stories of ten social innovators from around the world.
Ten social innovators – ordinary people – who randomly stumbled across problems,
injustices and wrongs and, armed with little more than determination and belief,
decided not to turn their backs but to dedicate their lives to solving them.

> Happy reading, Jon! M/T [@jonfildes](https://twitter.com/jonfildes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
> Just got my copy of "The Rise of the Reluctant Innovator". Looking forward to 
> it. [pic.twitter.com/mJLVX2qykq](http://t.co/mJLVX2qykq)
> — Reluctant Innovation (@ReluctantsBook) [November 29, 2013](https://twitter.com/ReluctantsBook/status/406359204627480576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

## **Innovators featured in this book**

Watching yet another Spanish movie in his friend’s apartment to avoid writing up
his doctoral dissertation, **Brij Kothari** makes a throwaway comment about subtitles,
which plants the seed of an idea and spawns a literacy initiative that has had, 
in Bill Clinton’s words, “a staggering impact on people’s lives”.

Worried about the political turmoil in Kenya, and concerned at the lack of information
that is forthcoming from his adoptive country, **Erik Hersman** mobilises his own
five-strong army to conceive, create and launch a web-based facility that revolutionises
how breaking news is disseminated worldwide.

Parachuted into the middle of sub-Saharan Africa with a brief to collect public 
health data, and confronted with a laborious, environmentally wasteful paper-based
system, paediatrician **Joel Selanikio** finds the perfect outlet for the skills
he acquired as a Wall Street computer consultant.

Intending to ground himself in the realities of global health during his internship
in rural Malawi, **Josh Nesbit** discovers that it is hard to sit on the sidelines
and soon finds himself proposing a solution to overcome the difficulty of connecting
patients, community health workers and hospitals.

After watching local doctors and midwives struggle to treat critically ill pregnant
women in near-total darkness on a Nigerian maternity ward, where an untimely power
cut can mean the difference between life and death, obstetrician **Laura Stachel**
delivers a solar-based solution that enhances survival prospects.

Observing how well the autistic son of a close friend responds to the therapeutic
effects of a Chinese massage technique that she has advocated using, **Louisa Silva**
is convinced that the treatment has the potential to benefit thousands of others,
but she needs to prove it.

Haunted by the memory of being separated from her older sister during a childhood
spent in foster care, and horrified that other siblings are continuing to suffer
the same fate, **Lynn Price** resolves to devise a way to bring such people back
together.

An unexpected conversation over dinner leads **Priti Radhakrishnan** to build an
innovative new organisation with a mission to fight for the rights of people denied
access to life saving medicines.

Until a visit to the dermatologist turns her world upside down, **Sharon Terry**
has never heard of pseudanthoma elasticum (PXE), but when she discovers that research
into the disease afflicting her children is hidebound by scientific protocol, she
sets about changing the system with characteristic zeal.

Encounters and conversations with leftover people occupying leftover spaces and 
using leftover materials, at home and abroad, led architecture professor **Wes Janz**
to view them as urban pioneers, not victims, and teach him a valuable lesson: think
small and listen to those at the sharp end.

## Reviews

“A book of hope, inspiration and a beacon of what’s possible”
**Archbishop Desmond
Tutu**, Nobel Peace Prize Winner

“This book’s vivid, engaging stories – of ordinary people who have devoted their
lives to solving problems and injustices they never expected to encounter – make
a major contribution to understanding what social innovation is all about. This 
is an inspiring and essential read for everyone who cares about our flawed, messy,
beautiful world and believes in its myriad possibilities”
**Hannah Bloch**, Mission
Projects Editor, National Geographic Magazine

“The world’s most challenging problems are being taken on by people motivated by
their personal passions, informed by their deep understanding of local realities
and shaped by their frustration with inadequate solutions. Ken Banks and the other
remarkable innovators here offer inspiration and insight into building practical
solutions while calling into question established wisdom about social innovation.
This is a must-read book for anyone who wants to solve problems with global implications
through local knowledge and involvement”
**Ethan Zuckerman**, Director, Center for
Civic Media at MIT