social innovation or

business as usual

pelle ehnwith a lot of support from

anders emilssonand

per-anders hillgrenmedea and k3

malmö university

• social innovation and business (what and why)?

• design and social innovation (where and who)?

• social innovation and living labs (how)?

Social innovation

”new ideas (products, services and models) that simultaneously meet social needs and create new social relationships or collaborations. In other words, they are innovations that are both good for society and enhance society’s capacity to act” Murray et al (2010) The Open Book of Social Innovation

Social innovation

”A novel solution to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than existing solutions and for which the value created accrues primarily to society as a whole rather than private individuals.

A social innovation can be a product, production process, or technology (much like innovation in general), but it can also be a principle, an idea, a piece of legislation, a social movement, an intervention, or some combination of them. Indeed, many of the best recognized social innovations, such as microfinance, are combinations of a number of these elements.”

James A. Phills Jr, Kriss Deiglmeier, Dale T. Miller: Rediscovering Social Innovation, Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2008

Social innovation

”The term social innovation refers to changes in the way individuals or communities act to solve a problem or to generate new opportunities. These innovations are driven more by changes in behaviour than by changes in technology or the market and they typically emerge from bottom-up rather than top-down processes.” Jégou & Manzini, Collaborative Services 2008

Examples

• The Open University – distance learning

• Wikipedia• Microfinance• Hospice• Fair trade

Why social innovation?

”The main reason is that existing structures and policies have found it impossible to crack some of the most pressing issues of our times – such as climate change, the worldwide epidemic of chronic disease, and widening inequality.”Murray et al (2010) The Open Book of Social Innovation

Broaden the concept of innovation: Business innovate mainly for return on investment, society must innovate for social return and transformation. Europe faces unprecedented challenges. This calls for collaborative, cross cutting responses reaching out to business, public policy communities, researchers, educators, public service providers, financiers and NGOs.

Relations and trust

”whereas in business the firm is the key agent of innovation, in the social innovation field the drive is more likely to come from a wider network, perhaps linking commissioners in public sector, providers in social enterprises, advocates in social movements, and entrepreneurs in business” Murray et al. (2010) The Open Book of Social Innovation

Beyond social business and social accounting ?

• SROI (social return of investment) • TBL (tripple bottom line)• CSR (corporate social

responsibility)

Design & social innovation

• Transformation design & service design – UK Public sector

• Design for social innovation and sustainability – Italy Sustainability

• Design for social impact & Design for community - USADeveloping countries

UK

Designing with all stakeholders (particpatory design)Making things visible and tangiblePrototyping ”fail early to succeed sooner”

”Southwark Circle was co-designed and tested with over 250 older people and their families, and developed by our partners at Participle.” http://www.southwarkcircle.org.uk/

Engine group

Italy

are all groups of people who cooperatively invent, enhance and manage innovative solutions for new ways of living. And they do so recombining what already exists, without waiting for a general change in the system (in the economy, in the institution’s, in the large infrastructures). Jegou & Manzini: Collaborative services (2008)

Creative communities

Collaborative services:Jégou, Manzini

[the scenario] indicates how, through local collaboration, mutual assistance, shared use we can reduce significantly each individual’s needs in terms of products and living space and optimize the use of equipment, reduce travel distances and, finally, lessen the impact of our daily lives on the environment. The scenario also gives an idea of how the diffusion of organisations based on sharing, exchange, and participation on a neighbourhood scale can also regenerate the social fabric, restore relations of proximity and create meaningful bonds between individuals.

Collaborative services:Jégou, Manzini

Ezio Manzini: Active wellbeing

The proposed cases of social innovation show us that something new is emerging: a wellbeing where the ‘user’ is actively involved. Where he/she is, in some way, the co-producer of the results he/she wants to achieve The result should be the evolution of user-centred design, towards something that could be defined as ‘stakeholder-centred design’. To move from the idea of ‘designing to solve problems’ to one of ‘designing to enable people to live as they like, while moving toward sustainability’.

Manzini: Designresearch for sustainable social innovation (2006)

USA

Ideo: Social impact / innovation

”As perhaps the purest example of our human-centered approach, Social Impact at IDEO enables design as a tool to address such global social issues as poverty, health, water, economic empowerment, environmental activism, and the need for basic services. Design for social impact seeks to incite transformational change in underserved, underrepresented, and disadvantaged communities”

Design for social impactRockefeller Foundation + Ideo and Continuum

”When design firms collaborate with NGOs, dramatic breakthrough also emerge”

Project H

Ideo + Kickstart

KickStart

KickStart Total Impact as of August 30, 2008

Pumps Sold: 105,627• * Kenya: 44,052• * Tanzania: 28,001• * Mali: 3,414

Enterprises Created: 70,769

People Moved out of Poverty: 338,284

New Profits and Wages Generated Annually: $77 million

Global interest

USA Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation:

”best solutions to our challenges will be found in communities across the country”

Social innovation a priority in EU innovation policy: 

”It is about tapping into the ingenuity of charities, associations and social entrepreneurs to find new ways of meeting social needs which are not adequately met by the market or the public sector”

Social Innovation Europe initiative

”I strongly believe that today our strong European tradition of social innovation is more needed than ever.

The crisis has made it clear that most of the challenges we are facing have taken on an increasingly social dimension from poverty and social exclusion to demographic ageing and to the needs for better governance and more sustainable resource management. What I am telling is not just matter for nice papers. It is indeed the need for policies that have a direct impact and concrete consequences for the life of our citizens.”José Manuel Durão Barroso 17 March 2011

Recommendation from a business panel to the EU commission:

• More technology is not the solution• Leverage the power of networks

and social innovation

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/innovation/ http://blogs.ec.europa.eu/innovationunlimited/

Malmö Living Labs: the stage, the neighbourhood, the factory

City of Malmö

users driving innovation

incubatorscompaniespublic institutionsngo's

studentsteachersresearchersdesigners

Continous match-making and alignment of interests and stakeholders

Malmö Living Labs (MEDEA, MAH)

Design and innovation rooted in local contexts

Möllevången

Rosengård

Western Harbour

The Factory

The Stage

The Neigbourhood

Fosie

Immigrant population

Artists, designers, musicians

Sustainability/media companies

Social innovation as “infrastructuring”Ongoing alignment between contexts and partly conflicting interests:• “substance” that emerges in situ• relational concept: it becomes infrastructure in relation to

organized practices

Extensive collaboration over time and among diverse stakeholders:

• design before use: selection, design, development, deployment, enactment

• in everyday use: mediation, interpretation, articulation• design in use: adaptation, appropriation, tailoring, re-design,

maintenance

The Stage Stage

the stage cross-media, culture productionmöllevången

New ways to produce, promote, distribute and finance cultural productions. Engaging audiences in professional creative processes

The Stage

Prototyping lab (Fablab) for co-productions mixing digital and physical material. Open source business models and micro financing services.

Under construction!The Factory

A co-production and innovation environment for collaborative services and urban planning. Taking its point of departure in multi-ethnic local resources.

The Neighbourhood

• Environment that seldom is associated with innovation and economic growth

• Marginalized groups and high unemployment but at the same a resource of intercultural competences

Case 1

RGRAThe movement: “Face and Voice of the Streets”

Hip-hop as a pedagogical tool

Building a repertoire

RGRA workshop

”Produce their own music””Love zones” ”Commuting on busses”

Blue tooth media push

LL

RGRA

Infrastructuring - Alignment

Do-Fi

Epsilon E. S.

SkånetrafikenVeolia

Prototyping: Bluetooth Hiphop Bus

New service, new promotion channels, new technology issue of trust

LL

RGRADo-Fi

Epsilon E. S.

SkånetrafikenVeolia

BluePromo

Infrastructuring - Alignment

LL

RGRADo-Fi

Epsilon E. S.

SkånetrafikenVeolia

BluePromo

Lilla Växthuset

Ozma

WIP- Wireless Indipendent Provider

Infrastructuring - Alignment

Prototyping: UrbLove

Collaboration between K3 Malmö University, RGRA, Lilla Växthuset, Ozma, Epsilon ES and Do-Fi

LL

RGRADo-Fi

Epsilon E. S.

SkånetrafikenVeolia

BluePromo

Lilla Växthuset

Ozma

WIP- Wireless Indipendent Provider

UrbLove

Infrastructuring - Alignment

• Combining: Low tech mobile game + social innovation

• Dealing with a social issue (geographical inclusion/exclusion)

• Providing business opportunities for NGO

Connecting UrbLove to schools

INKONSTK3

RGRADo-Fi

Epsilon E. S.

SkånetrafikenVeolia

BluePromo

Lilla Växthuset

Ozma

WIP- Wireless Indipendent Provider

UrbLove

Open ended Infrastructuring Leisure science

Public Schools

“Issues” and “controversies”

What parts of the city should get attention?

How to negotiate palestine/israeli conflict?

Case 2

Herrgårds Women Association

Five women started the Herrgårds Women association 8 years ago in Rosengård Malmö as a response to feeling excluded from the Swedish society.

•The NGO has 200 women (and 200 children) as members.•The nationalities include Afghan, Iran, Iraq and Bosnian women (majority Afghan).•Many have limited skills in Swedish, many are illiterates, most lack higher education, many live on social welfare.

Service opportunities

Beyond catering: Enriched cultural experiences and mixed services including food, laptop-sleeves and henna-tattoos.

Design experiments

Combined cooking class and media –workshopAligning: the Women, Attendo, Göran and Refugee Orphans

Future design solutions

Social media and movies……..

…….and/or new support structures in the City of Malmö?

Herrgårds Kvinnoförening

Collaborating networks

Infrastructuring

Network Göran

DoDream

Attendo

Save the children

City of Malmö Social department

City of Malmö business department

Good World AB

Researchers: Urban studies/LL

“Issues” and “controversies”

• ”Transit relations” with orphans?• Trade unions?• Power relations within their families? • Violence and threats? • Sustainable business models?

Social innovation references

• medea.mah.se• youngfoundation.org• socialinnovationexchange.org

• Murray, R., Caulier-Grice, J. and Mulgan, G., 2010. The open book of social innovation. London: Young Foundation, NESTA

• Hillgren, Per-Anders; Seravalli, Anna & Emilson, Anders. (2011). Prototyping and Infrastructuring in design for social innovation. Co-Design Vol. 7, Nos. 3–4, September–December 2011, 169–183.

• Björgvinsson, E; Ehn, P & Hillgren, P-A. (2012). Agonistic participatory design: working with marginalised social movements. Co-Design, 8:2-3, 127-144.

Social innovation

So here is the question:

Is social innovation a real challenge for your business, or are you better off doing (social) business as usual?