Pelle Ehn - Social Innovation. From Social Business Seminar.

1. social innovation
or
business as usual
pelle ehn
with a lot of support from
anders emilsson
and
per-anders hillgren
medea and k3
malmö university

2. • social innovation and business (what and
why)?
• design and social innovation (where and
who)?
• social innovation and living labs (how)?

3. 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

4. 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,

5. 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

6. Examples
• The Open University – distance learning
• Wikipedia
• Microfinance
• Hospice
• Fair trade

7. 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

8. 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.

9. 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

10. Beyond social business
and social accounting ?
• SROI (social return of investment)
• TBL (tripple bottom line)
• CSR (corporate social responsibility)

11. 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
- USA
Developing countries

12. UK

14. Designing with all stakeholders (particpatory
design)
Making things visible and tangible
Prototyping ”fail early to succeed sooner”

17. ”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/

18. Engine group

20. Italy

21. 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

23. 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.

24. Collaborative services:
Jégou, Manzini

25. 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)

26. USA

27. 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”

28. Design for social impact
Rockefeller Foundation + Ideo and Continuum
”When design firms collaborate with NGOs,
dramatic breakthrough also emerge”

29. Project H

30. Ideo + Kickstart

31. 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

32. 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”

33. 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

34. 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/

35. Malmö Living Labs: the stage, the
neighbourhood, the factory
City of Malmö
users driving innovation
incubators
companies
public
institutions
ngo's
students
teachers
researchers
designers
Continous match-making and alignment of interests and stakeholders

36. 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

37. 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

38. The Stage Stage
the stage
cross-media,
culture production
möllevången
New ways to produce, promote, distribute and finance
cultural productions. Engaging audiences in professional
creative processes
The Stage

39. Prototyping lab (Fablab) for co-productions mixing digital
and physical material. Open source business models and
micro financing services.
Under construction!
The Factory

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

41. • Environment that seldom is associated with innovation and
economic growth
• Marginalized groups and high unemployment but at the same a
resource of intercultural competences

42. Case 1

43. RGRAThe movement: “Face and Voice of the Streets”
Hip-hop as a pedagogical tool

44. Building a repertoire

45. RGRA workshop
”Produce their own music”
”Love zones” ”Commuting on busses”
Blue tooth media push

46. LL
RGRA
Infrastructuring - Alignment
Do-Fi
Epsilon E. S.
Skånetrafiken
Veolia

47. Prototyping: Bluetooth Hiphop Bus
New service, new promotion channels, new technology issue
of trust

48. LL
RGRA
Do-Fi
Epsilon E. S.
Skånetrafiken
Veolia
BluePromo
Infrastructuring - Alignment

49. LL
RGRA
Do-Fi
Epsilon E. S.
Skånetrafiken
Veolia
BluePromo
Lilla Växthuset
Ozma
WIP- Wireless Indipendent Provider
Infrastructuring - Alignment

50. Prototyping: UrbLove
Collaboration between K3 Malmö University, RGRA, Lilla Växthuset, Ozma, Epsilon
ES and Do-Fi

51. LL
RGRA
Do-Fi
Epsilon E. S.
Skånetrafiken
Veolia
BluePromo
Lilla Växthuset
Ozma
WIP- Wireless Indipendent Provider
UrbLove
Infrastructuring - Alignment

52. • Combining: Low tech mobile game + social
innovation
• Dealing with a social issue (geographical
inclusion/exclusion)
• Providing business opportunities for NGO
Connecting UrbLove to schools

53. INKONSTK3
RGRA
Ozma
UrbLove
Open ended Infrastructuring
Leisure science
Public Schools

54. “Issues” and “controversies”
What parts of the city should get attention?
How to negotiate palestine/israeli conflict?

55. Case 2

56. 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.

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

58. Design experiments
Combined cooking class and media –workshop
Aligning: the Women, Attendo, Göran and Refugee Orphans

59. Future design solutions
Social media and movies……..
…….and/or new support structures in the City of Malmö?

60. Herrgårds Kvinnoförening
Collaborating networks

61. 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

62. “Issues” and “controversies”
• ”Transit relations” with orphans?
• Trade unions?
• Power relations within their families?
• Violence and threats?
• Sustainable business models?

63. 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.

64. 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?