Jürgen Howaldt and Dmitri Domanski, representatives of the SI-DRIVE lead partner TU Dortmund University – sfs, spoke about social innovation research and policy at this international event, which was hosted by SI-DRIVE’s “sister” project TRANSIT in Rotterdam from 14th to 15th September 2017.
Since 2014, TRANSIT (TRANsformative Social Innovation Theory, http://www.transitsocialinnovation.eu/) has been developing a theory of transformative social innovation which situates the phenomena of social innovation within transformative change in the social context. Against this background, the conference “Learning for Change” (https://www.l4csi.org/) explored the empowering and transformative potentials of social innovation in the face of current problems and growing complexity. Participants discussed topics, such as paradoxes of transformative social innovation, institutions and social innovation beyond the friend-foe distinction and learning by sharing narratives of change.
Jürgen Howaldt from TU Dortmund University – sfs chaired a session “On the Future of Social Innovation Research and Policy” and presented the results of the global research project SI-DRIVE. Particularly, he focused on social innovation as a part of a comprehensive innovation policy. Julia Wittmayer from TRANSIT’s lead partner DRIFT commented on his presentation from her project’s perspective. Furthermore, Dmitri Domanski (TU Dortmund University – sfs) talked about the emerging research community in the field of social innovation. He presented the results of the study “Exploring the Research Landscape of Social Innovation”, conducted within the framework of the international project “Social Innovation Community (SIC)” (https://www.siceurope.eu/). The findings of the report confirm that in recent years, social innovation research has further established itself as an autonomous research field (https://www.siceurope.eu/about-sic/what-social-innovation/exploring-research-landscape-social-innovation).