95334 - Social Innovation, Sustainability And Inclusive Societies

Learning outcomes

During this course, the students will acquire a basic nowledge about the concept of social innovation, its dimensions and characteristics, and how socially innovative practices relate to sustainability and can support more inclusive societies.

Course contents

The course aims at representing a first introduction to the concept of social innovation, a core concept not only at the level of social enterprises/economy and third sector, but also at the level of local development processes, cooperation, bottom-up initiatives and public policies.

Social innovation is composed of three interconnected core principles: 1) it answers neglected or emerging needs; -2) it creates new forms of eco-social/institutional relations and political participation; and 3) it collectively empowers people to act and support social change.

If in many studies social innovation is interpreted in mainly economic, often market-economic terms, other approaches are reflecting on social innovative processes and practices aiming at supporting more democratically inclusive and sustainable societies. In this sense, social innovation fosters processes of empowerment and bottom-up initiatives, which can refer to different aspects: from the right to housing to short chain/organic agriculture, from intercultural dialogue and arts to urban regeneration and social movements.

In this sense, social innovation can improve society – in terms of equity, inclusion, and capabilities, among others – rather than only sustain economic growth and productivity. By doing so, social innovation is also intimately related to economic, environmental and socio-cultural forms of sustainability.

The first part of the course introduces the concept of social innovation, its definitions and the modalities through which it is developed by individuals and groups. In the second part of the course, we investigate how social innovation relates to the concept of sustainability, participating in enhancing more inclusive societies (both in terms of access to local resources, and in terms of participatory processes and collective learning). Specifically, we analyze the relation between social innovation and different domains such as arts, migration, tourism, creativity and local development. During the course we will also analyze some projects of social innovation that have been developed around the world.

In addition to the lectures, external guests will present social innovation experiences in areas such as migration, arts, organic agriculture, urban and rural regeneration, tourism and many other fields of interest.

Readings/Bibliography

1. Moulaert, F., Mehmood, A., MacCallum, D., & Leubolt, B. (2017). Social innovation as a trigger for transformations-the role of research. Publications Office of the European Union (pp.11-28).
2. Moulaert, F., MacCallum, D., Mehmood, A., Hamdouch, A. (2013). The international handbook on social innovation: Collective action, social learning and transdisciplinary research. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, (chapters 1, 4 and 10).
3. Moralli, M., Allegrini, G. (2020). Crises redefined: towards new spaces for social innovation in inner areas?, «European Societies», Special Issue: European Societies in the Time of the Coronavirus Crisis, pp. 1 – 13.
4. Moralli, M., Musarò, P., Parmiggiani, P. (2019). Borders Kill. Tania Bruguera’s Referendum as an Artistic Strategy of Political Participation, «Journal of Mediterranean Knowledge», 4(2), pp. 137 – 160.

Teaching methods

Lectures including moments of discussion with the students. The study of the concepts of social innovation will be accompanied by many examples of socially innovative practices in different fields (arts, tourism, migration, inner areas, social movements, etc.).

Moreover, durign the lessons we will study and discuss about how social innovation works in theory and practice and how to apply it in third sectors organizations, local policies and cooperation projects.

The lessons will be also complemented by seminars with the participation of external guests presenting concrete social innovation projects.

Audio/visual material will be used. All the readings for the course will be uploaded in Virtuale platform.

Assessment methods

Oral interview based on the reference texts for the examination, aimed at assessing both the learning of the contents by the students and their ability to rework and argumentation, also through practical examples.

Teaching tools

Slide, images, videos. Guest lecturers will be invited.

 

Office hours

See the website of Melissa Moralli