si new role for universities
TRANSCRIPT
Universities, social innovation & social entreprenurship
• Universities quick to pick up social innovation
• R&D projects• Courses & programs• Incubators & knowledge
centers• Cross-sector collaborations
ACSI (Aalto Camp for Societal Innovation, Malmö University 2013)
• Discourse around the need for academia to be 'relevant' and act on current societal challenges
• Discourse about the need for cross-sector collaboration and multi-/cross-/transdisciplinary approaches
• “governance”-approach opens up/gives legitimacy for “new” actors and collaborations
• An increasing proportion of research funding is directed towards applied approaches (like Horizon2020)
Background
• Engaged scholarship US 1960s
• Critical perspectives - civic, social & environmental
• Early 1970s: action research - participatory research
• Project based education
”The competitive University”
• Higher education as a market
• Focus on rankings etc.• Business oriented approach• ”Education factories”• ”Employability”• Higher proportion of
research funding from external sources/industry
Universities and sustainability• Big impact in Universities
since 1990s• Cross-disciplinary /cross-
sector perspectives• Project-based approach
to learning• Different directions –
differ in the view on the view on growth & role of business/CSR
• When social innovation and social entreprenurship became household concepts – many universities, especially in the US, were quick to pick it up and institutionalize (ex as courses for MBAs) – mid-1990s – (Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Initiative)
• Student focus – ”outreach”• Later in the EU (c. 2005) primarily business
schools as well • More focus on research (SKOLL Center for Social
Entreprenuership at Oxford)
Courses & programs: • From modules to masters (ex.
social entrepreneurship and management masters at RUC)
• campus to moocs; (ex. zukunftsmacher-plattform ,
Kiel U.; U-Lab (edX/MIT))• Applied; design-thinking; skills for social
entreprenurs; case studies/live cases
Research
• Horizon2020 and other transnational programs (EU-funding)
• Independent foundations (Ex. Robert Bosch foundation)
• National funding – (ex FORMAS in Sweden)• Often emphasize cross-disciplinary and cross
sector approaches
Institutional arrangements:• Center for Socialt Entreprenørskap, RUC• Institute for community engaged scholarship,
Uni of Guelph, Canada• Forum for social innovation Sweden, Mah • Research – education –
collaboration/knowledge hubs
Conferences & workshops
• Ex. Social innovation summit, Malmö Nov 2016
• Policy makers, social entrepreneurs, impact investors, students, researchers
• “to facilitate unexpected encounters”
• Seminars, roundtables, poster exhibitions, ‘science slam’
New role(s) for the academy?
• ”The challenge driven university – to solve global problems”?
• Geoff Mulgan, NESTA• Student focus• Collaborative problem solving• Sustainable development goals