Local is as much an attitude as relating to location. It's acting based on problems you can see and are in contact with.
There are two types of design - expert and embodied. Expert is those trained in design, embodied is anytime someone untrained makes something to solve a problem with intent.
Social innovation happens in the space between government and community.
It comes about when there's a problem to solve, the willpower to solve it and an idea
Human civilisation can be described as sociotechnical. Over the past century, innovation has relied on technology. We have broadly ignored that innovation can come from new social models.
What is an innovative social model in one location might be the norm in another. For example, utilising intergenerational relationships for elderly care could be considered radical in countries like England, but very normal in countries like India. Thus social models must be considered on a local basis
An acting force on the world today is the move from centralised networks to distributed networks
What has happened for information technology (from hierarchical mainframe computers to flat networks) is happening for electricity, and will happen for water and food and fabrication and finally the economy.
We live in a risk society - where natural catastrophe, war and terrorism, disease, threaten to disrupt the global system. A distributed network is more resilient in the face of a risk society.