Saving Societies From Within: Innovation and Equity Through Inter-Organizational Networks

Moving beyond existing models from economics and political science, this book shows how crises in capitalism and democracy can be solved with Systemic coordinated inter-organizational networks.

It offers a new model of societal coordination that builds cooperation and trust while solving today’s modern and complex practical problems: Systemic coordinated inter-organizational networks (SCIONs). It details how SCIONs can quickly catalyze organizational change among interorganizational network members while providing a general framework for characterizing individual and organizational change. The chapters apply these theoretical ideas in an epic case study of the rebuilding of the health care system in rural Nicaragua after a major natural disaster (Hurricane Mitch). They provide lessons for public health program managers while contributing to the literatures on modes of coordination and on social capital.

The book is a vital text for upper-division courses on management, inter-organizational collaboration, crisis management and public health.

Jerald Hage is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park, USA. He has spent his professional life attempting to solve major problems with theory and applied research to test that theory, starting with the study of organizational innovation.

Joseph J. Valadez is Professor of Global Health at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK. He is a community epidemiologist who has worked in more than 50 lower- and middle-income countries, including Kenya and Nicaragua.

Wilbur C. Hadden is Research Scientist at the Center for Innovation, Department of Sociology, University of Maryland at College Park, USA. His general interest is in the advancement of population health and more specifically in social inequalities and social determinants of health.