Social Innovation Around the World
By Janice Saji
In this issue of SPARK, we deep dive into social innovation projects happening in the Greater Toronto Area, Canada, with a focus on projects led by Humber College faculty and researchers.
But what’s happening around the world? To gauge the global progress in social innovation, we looked up social innovation projects taking place all around the world.
Read along to see what each continent is doing in the field of social innovation—and you never know, this might just be the inspiration that could spark your next project!
North America
Participatory health research with migrants: Opportunities, challenges, and way forwards
While migration is a politically pressing issue, migrant health is less talked about. This research focuses on addressing opportunities and challenges in relation to migrant health. It aims to contribute to a shift from a deficit model that sees migrants as passively affected by policies to their reconceptualization as citizens who are engaged in the co-creation of solutions. It was conducted by Maria Roura from the University College Cork, Ireland; Sonia Dias from Universidade NOVA de Lisboa & Comprehensive Health Research Center (CHRC), Portugal; Joseph W. LeMaster from Kansas University Medical School, United States; and Anne MacFarlane from University of Limerick, Ireland.
The Influence of Marketing Capability in Mexican Social Enterprises
This project examines the effect of marketing capability on social innovation and its effect on social and economic value creation, while controlling for firm size among social enterprises in Mexico. It found that social innovation was a robust predictor of social value, with important implications for social and economic sustainability. The research was carried out by Judith Cavazos-Arroyo from Universidad Popular Autonoma del Estado de Puebla, Mexico, and Rogelio Puente-Diaz from Universidad Anahuac, Mexico.
South America
Design for social innovation between university and the broader society: A mutual learning process
This project focuses on identifying how to encourage university-community engagement with local communities and disadvantaged groups. The study was developed using a research through design approach and includes considerations of the Brazilian policies (and their qualitative framework) regarding the relationship between university and the rest of society. It was conducted by Carla Cipolla and Rita Afonso from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Bibiana de Oliveira Serpa from Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Relationship between innovation and sustainability in Latin American countries: Differences by perceptual characteristics of early-stage entrepreneurs
This research by Gustavo Barrera Verdugo, from Universidad de Las Américas, Chile, evaluates the relationship between innovation and sustainability in Latin American early-stage entrepreneurship.
Europe
Thinking Together Digitalization and Social Innovation in Rural Areas: An Exploration of Rural Digitalization Projects in Germany
In this project, Ariane Sept, from the Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space Erkner, Germany, seeks to systematically think together digitalization and social innovation in rural areas. This is done by exploring rural digitalization projects in Germany. The paper highlights the spectrum of these initiatives and provides a framework under which digitalization and social innovation can be analyzed and smart villages may be supported systematically.
Co-production and social innovation in street-level employability services: Lessons from services with lone parents in Scotland
The United Kingdom has been characterized as in the vanguard of “work-first” activation—deploying high levels of compulsion and standardized employability services that seek to move people from welfare to work as quickly as possible. However, despite the extension of welfare conditionality to excluded groups such as lone parents, government-led, work-first employability programmes have often proved ineffective at assisting the most vulnerable to escape poverty or even just to progress in the labour market. In this paper, Colin Lindsay and Anne Marie Cullen from the University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom, and Will Eadson, Sarah Pearson and Elaine Batty from the Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom, argue that alternative approaches, defined by co-production and social innovation, have the potential to be more successful.
Africa
An exploratory study of local social innovation initiatives for sustainable poverty reduction in Nigeria
The eradication of extreme poverty remains an intractable global challenge. This paper, by Olubunmi Ipinnaiye, from the University of Limerick, Ireland, and Femi Olaniyan from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, explores social innovation as a strategy for fostering sustainable poverty reduction in a developing country, Nigeria.
Bridging the health inequality gap: an examination of South Africa’s social innovation in health landscape
In this study, Katusha de Villiers, from the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, South Africa, aims to demonstrate the capacity for social innovation in health with respect to South Africa and highlights some current innovations that respond to issues of health equity such as accessibility, affordability, and acceptability. The study highlights that interaction and collaboration between the government and non-state actors is critical for an integrated and effective delivery system for both health and social care.
Asia
Future Research of the Housing Supply System in Iran’s Metropolises: A Case Study of Ahvaz Metropolis
Masoud Safaeepour and Fahime Fadaei Jazi, from the Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Iran, aimed to identify the effective factors in the future state of housing planning in Ahvaz metropolis, Iran, through this research. The findings show that the seven factors of migration, marginalization, weakening of the value of national currency, low ability to pay loans, increase in land prices, insignificant credit facilities, and lack of an integrated and coordinated management system in the housing sector had the most impacts and key roles in the system.
Exploring social innovation through co-creation in rural India using action research
Social innovation (SI) has been promoted by policymakers to address various social issues in the context of diminishing government resources. It is, however, difficult to assess the efficiency of SI-based public policies, as the process of SI itself remains largely nebulous. This paper by Souresh Cornet and Saswat Barpandais, from the Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India, aims to better understand this process with a focus on its early stage, until the point of identifying a socially innovative idea and in the context of disadvantaged rural communities in India.
Oceania
Assembling an innovative social housing project in Melbourne: mapping the potential for social innovation
This research by Katrina Raynor, from the University of Melbourne, Australia, highlights the role of community housing providers as ‘pivot points’ in the social housing sector and acknowledges the importance of credibility, funding, legislative change and construction innovation in scaling housing social innovations.
Towards understanding social innovation in multicultural societies: Implications of Māori cultural values for social innovation in New Zealand
Anne de Bruin and Christine Read, from Massey University, New Zealand, argue through this paper that heterogeneous societies with diverse cultures have an expanded space of possibilities for developing social innovations. They do this by highlighting the capacity of Māori values, encompassed in an ecosystem of Māori social institutions, to catalyse social innovation in New Zealand.