in english NEWS DAS ZSI KOMPETENZEN PRODUKTE KONTAKT ARBEIT & CHANCENGLEICHHEIT TECHNIK & WISSEN FORSCHUNGSPOLITIK & ENTWICKLUNG » Home » Thematic Areas » Social Innovation Print AKTUELLES NEWS A proud mamber of the Platform Research and Technology Policy Evaluation Evaluation Talent Award goes to María del Carmen Calatrava Moreno and Magdalena Wicher PUBLIKATION A Research Agenda for Social Innovation This insightful 320 pages Research Agenda offers unique perspectives into the different strands of social innovation research... MEDIENECHO Wenn Laien kreativ forschen ... ein Beitrag von Johannes Lau, Der Standard, über ZSI-Projekte NEWS Citizen Science in Europe stories from 3 years of EU-Citizen.Science VERANSTALTUNG 2. DEZ 2021 Diplomacy on Stage Conference on the occasion of the 20th work Anniversary of the Austrian Cultural Forum Belgrade MEDIENECHO Results brief for the S4D4C project published by CORDIS "Driving better science diplomacy in the face of global challenges" in 6 languages NEWS Der SEED-Hub Newsletter Nr. 2 steht zum Download bereit! Aktuelle Aktivitäten zur Stärkung des Ecosystems Social Entrepreneurs und Sozialunternehmen in der Grenzregion SK/AT! Alle News anzeigen Alle Events anzeigen Alle Publikationen anzeigen FoodSafety4EU - Multi-stakeholder Platform for Food Safety in Europe Alle Projektwebseiten anzeigen THEMEN Kompetenz auswählen ... Citizen Science Co-creation and quadruple helix cooperation Demographic Change, Ageing & Health Educational Research and Lifelong Learning Energy, Climate Change, Bioeconomy and Food Gender Information and Communication Technologies Labour Market and Employment Policy Migration & Integration National, Regional and European RTDI Policies Regional Development Responsible Research and Innovation Science Communication Social Inclusion & Equal Opportunities Social Innovation Techno-globalisation and Internationalisation Strategies Technology Enhanced Learning SOCIAL INNOVATION Supporting all Sustainable Development Goals Social innovations are novel and more effective social practices that prove capable to tackle societal issues and are adopted and successfully utilised by individuals, groups and organisations concerned. In the same way that new products and processes become innovations only with success in markets, social innovations must generate lasting value for target groups. As part of social change, social innovations include services, rules, procedures, and social practices more effective than comparable concepts. Turning an idea to become a social innovation, it needs to meet social demand, providing capability to resolve an issue, and receive acceptance by those concerned. Beyond resolution of particular needs, social innovations provide influence pertaining to adaptation and development of various modes of governance. Increasing importance of social innovations is generated by globalisation – with high impact on large parts of the world society. Creation, implementation, and research regarding social innovation attain significance not only in the domains of NGO’s and civil society, yet also in public administration, policy making, business enterprises, and social partner’s institutions. Individual behaviour may be subject to social innovation as well as corporate development, education systems, teaching methods and learning, or rules of societal constitution (e.g. social security, pension and tax systems, health provision, measures concerning environment …). With our work as non-profit in applied social sciences, we support the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals by promoting socially innovative projects. You can find an overview how we address global societal challenges (respectively the SDGs) here. ZSI has worked on the definition and measurement of social innovations for many years before this term became a buzz-word in international cooperation - it was established 1990, many years prior to present day vibrant debates pertaining to social innovation, its promises, and potential merits. It is the oldest of now numerous centres for social innovation that emerged world-wide from 2000 onwards. Over the course of decades, ZSI grew in size as well as in competence. By virtue of solid scientific expertise, wide ranging, and approved skills in project management, and long standing experience in international multi- and trans-disciplinary research, ZSI has developed outstanding competencies in theory and practice of innovation processes in general, and of social innovation in particular. Ever since its very foundation, ZSI’s approach to social innovation is signified not by distinction from established innovation theory and research, but by integration of social dimensions in an extended innovation paradigm: All innovations are socially relevant, yet certain innovations primarily deliver specific societal outcomes (social value), and hence are termed social innovations. This scientific avenue to comprehend social innovation applies principles of innovation to social demands, societal challenges and social – sometimes: systemic – change at large (cf. objectives of social innovation in the so-called BEPA report). The prefix ‘social’ is neither limited to ‘caring,’ nor is it meant normative in the sense of inherent provision of ‘good for society’ (even though such intentions may prevail): Any innovation, be it a new product or a new mode to prevent drug addiction, may be welcomed by parts of society and objected by others. Moreover, what is functional and beneficial in one region at a given time, may prove inoperable or even obstructive in other regions, for different communities or generations. ‘The proof of the pudding is in the eating’. Applied to social innovation, the famous phrase implies the need to differentiate between the making of social innovations and their results: In most cases the creation and implementation of a social innovation aims at an explicit purpose to fix a social issue in a new or alternative way, promising a first ever, or improved and more effective, solution. Intentions and purposeful social action inevitably reflect interests and concerns of individuals, groupings, or organisations. Accordingly, different societal entities adhere to a variety of distinct, partially conflicting interests that become manifest in social action as customs, rites, and wide ranges of patterns of behaviour, mostly in compliance with predominating frames of reference. This is why defining social innovation requires analytic, instead of descriptive, properties, and must not pretend to provide a normative comprehension of what is good or ‘social’ in the sense of general benefits for society, neglecting antagonisms, conflicts of interest, and potential negative impact. Similar to Schumpeter’s early shortcut to determine innovation as new combinations of production factors, social innovation may be understood very short as new combinations of practices in doing things. New combinations of production factors enable the creation of new products, technological artefacts, and generate economic returns on investment in first place; secondary societal impacts may be intended and beneficial to certain parts of the society, yet controversial or inacceptable to others. New combinations of practices in social action enable novel or better procedures to resolve societal issues and generate social return on investments in first place; they may be controversial as well in different parts of the society, and entail secondary economic effects. As a matter of principle innovations – and social innovations in particular – are requisites of change in any (business, public, and civil society) sector of the society. The mainstream concept of innovation acknowledges new products, and processes as innovation only on condition that an advanced novel device or technology proves commercially successful in markets. In structural similarity, an analytical definition of social innovation requires a criterion of the same value as ‘commercially successful in markets,’ though success of social innovations will neither be measurable by the same monetary and business terms, nor is it limited to the corporate sector. Therefore and in order to allow for comparable analysis, the following definition has been developed in the SI-DRIVE project and can be applied to further study in theory and research: Social innovation is defined as new combination or figuration of practices in areas of social action, prompted by certain actors or constellations of actors with the goal of better coping with needs and problems than is possible by using existing practices. An innovation is therefore social to the extent that it varies social action and is socially accepted and diffused in society. Our key references include (you find more in the links below this article) Co-organisation of the largest conferences on social innovation in Europe including “Pathways to Social Change” in 2015 and “Challenge Social Innovation" (2011), leading to the formation of ESSI, the European School of Social Innovation Social Innovation Week (2006) and Social Innovation Summer School (2012 and following editions via the Social Innovation Community) Master of Arts in Social Innovation, launched together with the Danube University, Krems, Austria (2013) Atlas of Social Innovation Social Innovation Academy (online course) Project examples SI-DRIVE: Social Innovation - Driving Force of Social Change, Integrated Project under FP7 Social Innovation Community, Coordination and Support Action under HORIZON 2020 Several projects dealing with social entrepreneurship and social business funded by INTERREG (e.g. SENSES, RaISE) Various successful pilot projects on digital social innovation (‘collective awareness platforms’) and in the sphere of the maker movement and citizen science (e.g. CAPTOR, MAKE-IT, CAP4Access) Selected publications The Lisbon Social Innovation Declaration - Social Innovation as a path to a sustainable, resilient and inclusive Europe, 2018 "Vienna Declaration: The Most Relevant Topics in Social Innovation Research", 2011 "Challenge Social Innovation. Potentials for Business, Social Entrepreneurship, Welfare and Civil Society", 2012; Springer "Social Innovation: The Novel Creation, Variation or New Combination of Social Practices", 2013; Encyclopaedia of Creativity, Invention, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship ANSPRECHPERSON: Mag. Dr. Klaus Schuch ATTACHMENTS: ZSI_Soziale_Innovation.pdf (pdf, 884.11Kb) RELEVANTE ARTIKEL: Projekte Beirat "Foresight & Citizens" der FTI-Task Force Arbeitsgruppe "EU-Missionen" Social Innovation as Valuation and Outcome Category of SNSF Funded Research Regenerative Co-Creative Transformation HUBS Social Entrepreneurship Education and Development Hub (SEED-Hub) Critical Making show more .. Publikationen A Research Agenda for Social Innovation Sustainable development and climate change mitigation at the rural municipal level in Austria. Tracing policy diffusion, process dynamics and political change RTI Policy note on evaluating social innovations The Covid-19 Response From Global Careables Makers Citizen Social Science: New and Established Approaches to Participation in Social Research show more .. Veranstaltungen Critical Making Workshop Webinar: Co-shaping evaluation in Citizen Science? Citizen Science SDG Conference Measuring what matters: The comparability issue in indexes Social(i)Makers SDG Impact Camp show more .. News Wenn Laien kreativ forschen Der SEED-Hub Newsletter Nr. 2 steht zum Download bereit! Celebrating the new European Green Deal projects Subscribe to the STEP CHANGE Project Newsletter Rückblick: DIRECT HUBS Impact Café in Wien show more .. Leider ist dieser Inhalt in der ausgewählten Sprache nicht verfügbar. Impressum & Datenschutz Login ALLE INNOVATIONEN SIND SOZIAL RELEVANT