Social innovation and social entreprenurship

– new role(s) for Universities?

Fredrik Björk

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