Working Group 1

Design-led approaches to Social Innovation (SI) and Social Entrepreneurship (SE)

In recent years there has been accelerated interest in ‘design thinking’ as an approach that promises to solve organisational and social challenges where traditional methods struggle. This has led to a massive expansion of open resources and commercial offerings but supporting critical evaluations have lagged behind.

This Work Group responds to that gap in understanding and aims to develop our critical understanding of how design-led approaches morph in practice to enable and encourage social innovation and social entrepreneurship. Specifically, our work will focus practical tools, platforms and programmes in use within higher-educational contexts.

In that context this WG will: Undertake an international policy review identifying the nature of multi-disciplinary innovation, social entrepreneurship and social innovation; Undertake an international review identifying appropriate design-led tools to support the Action initiatives; and Co-create awareness raising and learning tools in the Pan-European Public Sector Innovation (ePSI).

Series of Design Matters seminars led by Dr. Nicholas Spencer, Northumbria University:

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