Social innovation

Social innovations are new social practices that aim to meet social needs in a better way than the existing solutions, resulting from - for example - working conditions, education, community development or health. These ideas are created with the goal of extending and strengthening civil society. Social innovation includes the social processes of innovation, such as open source methods and techniques and also the innovations which have a social purpose—like activism, crowdfunding, time-based currency, telehealth, cohousing, virtual volunteering, microcredit, or distance learning. There are many definitions of social innovation, however, they usually include the broad criteria about social objectives, social interaction between actors or actor diversity, social outputs, and innovativeness (The innovation should be at least "new" to the beneficiaries it targets, but it does not have to be new to the world). Different definitions include different combinations and different number of thes

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Social Innovation and Resilience: exploring the dynamics and impacts on the digital transformation of governance & society

Gianluca Carlo Misuraca, Gianluigi Viscusi

This paper is set out to establish the foundations for developing a framework to assess the potential impact of social policy innovation to contribute to the debate on the future of welfare systems. This calls in fact for monitoring the evolution of social innovations and the implications on the social protection systems that are due to the combined effect of the digital transformation and the emergence of innovative governance paradigms. Building on an extensive systematization of the state of the art and conceptualization work, the paper discusses findings from the review of the literature, linking the relevant theoretical debates on social innovation and resilience with the debate on welfare state reforms. Thus, it presents the interpretative framework proposed, which builds on key dimensions of ICT-enabled innovation and digital governance, discussing the applicability of the framework and outlining policy implications and future research directions.

Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)2018

Understanding the Social Implications of the Digital Transformation: Insights from Four Case Studies on the Role of Social Innovation to Foster Resilience of Society, Electronic Participation

Gianluca Carlo Misuraca, Gianluigi Viscusi

This paper advances further the analysis of previous exploratory research conducted by the authors on how social innovation can foster resilience in a digital governance context. The process of innovation in social policy, as well as the building of resilience implies changes in the existing status quo. ICTs can drive and steer such change, while at the same time they can act as counterbalance for the negative consequence of the digital transformation of labour markets on social protection systems. Understanding the logics and principles behind the design and implementation processes of exemplary innovative initiatives is thus crucial from a policy learning perspective, in order to identify the drivers and processes making this change happen and determining its outcomes. Based on an extensive body of literature reviewed the framework proposed for interpreting the effects of social innovation in fostering resilience fare discussed through four case studies.

Springer2018

From Public Value to Social Value of Digital Government: Co-Creation and Social Innovation in European Union Initiatives

Gianluca Carlo Misuraca, Gianluigi Viscusi

This paper discusses the development of key features in European Union policy and service redesign, based on social innovative practices where co-creation and the related phenomenon of digital social innovation have a high potential impact. The idea underneath this claim is that Information and Communication Technologies are becoming increasingly pervasive in the design, development and delivery of social innovation and co-creation initiatives which should not be limited to service delivery, rather serve as the driver for opening-up governance systems and change the way public organizations are structured and policy designed and implemented. Consequently, the paper discusses the key elements identified for setting up open and collaborative governance systems,while, taking stock from the analysis of policy experiences and practices funded by the European Commission, an overview of main drivers and barriers are presented. The paper concludes outlining recommendations for future research, as well as implications and possible directions for policy.

2019

Social enterprise

A social enterprise is an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in financial, social and environmental well-being. This may include maximizing social impact alongsi

Civil society

Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere. By other authors, civil society is used in th

Social entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurship is an approach by individuals, groups, start-up companies or entrepreneurs, in which they develop, fund and implement solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues. T

MGT-408: Transitions and technology policy

This course addresses the issue of designing innovation strategies and technology policies to support transitions towards sustainable development goals.

MGT-400: Corporate strategy

Why are some firms more successful than others? This is the fundamental question of strategy. A key concern of managers is the complex and uncertain relationship between the firm, its strategy, its performance and its environment. Study competition and strategy from the perspective of top managers.

DH-500: Computational Social Media

The course integrates concepts from media studies, machine learning, multimedia and network science to characterize social practices and analyze content in sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Students will learn computational methods to infer individual and networked phenomena in social media.