Design for Social Innovation Research Network: Bridging the UK and Asia-Pacific Practices
Lead Research Organisation:
Northumbria University
Department Name: Fac of Arts, Design and Social Sciences
Abstract
The aims of the proposal is to create and establish an international research network on an emerging and relatively undocumented field of Design for Social Innovation by creating a platform for knowledge sharing between researchers and practitioners in the UK and Asia-Pacific region.
The term 'Social Innovation' has become widely used, actively promoted by governments, organisations, academia and businesses alike. According to the Design for Social Innovation Report published by the European Commission (2014, pg 2), they state; "Social innovation is the concept of developing new - often disruptive solutions that work towards meeting social goals." Arguably, communities and organisations have always tackled problems and effected change for the social and public good. However, in the last ten years, we have witnessed a growing interest and use of design to enable social innovation due to the on-going financial crisis in the UK, Europe and the US. Design is seen as a way to harness latent creativity and participation from various stakeholders' local, situated knowledge. With a rich history of socially focused initiatives and current political idea of the 'Big Society', UK has a leading number of practitioners and researchers currently operating in this field.
The strong economic development in Asia in the last 15 years has increased the West's interest in the region. A recent report from the Australian Government Trade Commission report (AUSTRADE, 2015) suggests that the ASEAN 5's (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam) GDP growth will far outstrip the Euro zone. Furthermore, Australia is entering its 24th year of uninterrupted economic growth, with GDP projection higher than the US, UK or Europe. However, even prosperous economies like Australia, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong are facing challenges to balance sustainable economic development with social and political changes. There are now strong signs that the interest in using design to facilitate social change is growing in Asia-Pacific by the increasing number of social innovation labs being established in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Korea.
Our proposal aims to connect UK researchers with current practices in Asia-Pacific, leveraging the experience and knowledge of leading researchers in the UK to inform practices in Asia-Pacific, while at the same time using examples from Asia-Pacific to enrich and inform the understanding of Design for Social Innovation in the UK. As such, there will be three key activities in Thailand and the UK that will bring together this dispersed community of practice. A public symposium bringing together examples from the Asia-Pacific region will be held in Bangkok, followed by a workshop aimed at identifying issues, themes and opportunities for further research. The outcomes from the Bangkok symposium and workshop will be shared as points of discussion with participants in the UK and to shape the practitioner workshop that will be used to inform practices and identify research opportunities in the UK.
The interactions between the participants and presentations given will be made available to the wider community through a dedicated community-led project website. The community platform will house various resources created from the proposed events, and links to various social innovators, social enterprises, funding bodies, NGOs, project initiatives, research networks, governmental bodies and companies in Design and Social Innovation. It will also become a repository for academic research and publications relevant to the field, and house project notices that may arise in the future. The platform will enable us to not only enable the continued dissemination of the research outcomes but to facilitate continued dialogue between the communities.
The term 'Social Innovation' has become widely used, actively promoted by governments, organisations, academia and businesses alike. According to the Design for Social Innovation Report published by the European Commission (2014, pg 2), they state; "Social innovation is the concept of developing new - often disruptive solutions that work towards meeting social goals." Arguably, communities and organisations have always tackled problems and effected change for the social and public good. However, in the last ten years, we have witnessed a growing interest and use of design to enable social innovation due to the on-going financial crisis in the UK, Europe and the US. Design is seen as a way to harness latent creativity and participation from various stakeholders' local, situated knowledge. With a rich history of socially focused initiatives and current political idea of the 'Big Society', UK has a leading number of practitioners and researchers currently operating in this field.
The strong economic development in Asia in the last 15 years has increased the West's interest in the region. A recent report from the Australian Government Trade Commission report (AUSTRADE, 2015) suggests that the ASEAN 5's (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam) GDP growth will far outstrip the Euro zone. Furthermore, Australia is entering its 24th year of uninterrupted economic growth, with GDP projection higher than the US, UK or Europe. However, even prosperous economies like Australia, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong are facing challenges to balance sustainable economic development with social and political changes. There are now strong signs that the interest in using design to facilitate social change is growing in Asia-Pacific by the increasing number of social innovation labs being established in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Korea.
Our proposal aims to connect UK researchers with current practices in Asia-Pacific, leveraging the experience and knowledge of leading researchers in the UK to inform practices in Asia-Pacific, while at the same time using examples from Asia-Pacific to enrich and inform the understanding of Design for Social Innovation in the UK. As such, there will be three key activities in Thailand and the UK that will bring together this dispersed community of practice. A public symposium bringing together examples from the Asia-Pacific region will be held in Bangkok, followed by a workshop aimed at identifying issues, themes and opportunities for further research. The outcomes from the Bangkok symposium and workshop will be shared as points of discussion with participants in the UK and to shape the practitioner workshop that will be used to inform practices and identify research opportunities in the UK.
The interactions between the participants and presentations given will be made available to the wider community through a dedicated community-led project website. The community platform will house various resources created from the proposed events, and links to various social innovators, social enterprises, funding bodies, NGOs, project initiatives, research networks, governmental bodies and companies in Design and Social Innovation. It will also become a repository for academic research and publications relevant to the field, and house project notices that may arise in the future. The platform will enable us to not only enable the continued dissemination of the research outcomes but to facilitate continued dialogue between the communities.
Planned Impact
The proposed research network aims to facilitate knowledge generation and exchange between UK and Asia-Pacific academics and practitioners in Design for Social Innovation. It will generate impact in a number of communities linked to Design and Social Innovation.
Design practice community - For the design practitioners working on social innovation projects in the UK, participation in the workshop will be an opportunity to make connections, share best practices, learn about the Asia-Pacific context and identify project opportunities. For UK based practitioners looking to find opportunities to work in Asia-Pacific, the workshop will help them understand the similarities and differences between the UK and Asia-Pacific and to identify qualities, skills, mindsets and conditions. For Asia-Pacific practitioners, participation in the public symposium and workshop will enable them to hear stories of successes and failures from the region, and learn from UK practices. Attendance at the events will offer opportunities to connect with people from incubators, NGOS, think tanks, innovation hubs, social entrepreneurs, social venture funds and governmental departments. For the invited speakers, it would offer an international platform to showcase their work and to extend their reach beyond their locality. This will strengthen their standing in their community and demonstrate value they could bring to future project bids. The additional resources published on the project website will also provide a range of varied examples in different countries, offering inspiration and connection to other practitioners and provide a way to track project notices in the future.
Social innovators and social entrepreneurs - social innovators and entrepreneurs are the individuals and teams that are responsible for initiating, developing and creating social development projects and social enterprises. For the invited speakers, it would offer an international platform to showcase and disseminate work. It would also offer an opportunity to meet other people working in this area, share best practices and create new networks. The published case studies, talks, reports and academic papers on the website will be a valuable resource to help people outside the sector understand the range and type of work practiced in the region. The examples collected and disseminated through the online platform will also provide them with successful exemplars that can be used to lobby for funds to support current and new projects.
Policy-makers, legislators and their advisors - With the increasing use of design to facilitate social innovation, the research will be help policy-makers understand the role, impact and conditions for the use of design to facilitate more effective social innovation projects. Learnings from the events and resources should inform the creation of policies that will establish and build a support structure in countries where there is a lack of infrastructure for this space. Academic outputs such as a journal special issue and a conference paper will be used to support evidence based policy making approach.
Government departments and local government - Many governments are often supporting social innovation, and this traction is increasing globally. They are a key stakeholder in initiating, enabling and sustaining social innovation.The proposed events will help disseminate the work to a wider audience and provide more visibility of local initiatives to their respective national agencies and departments.
National Design Boards/Councils - Project exemplars and other resources collated will provide evidence of impact of design in social innovation to organisations tasked to promote the use of design for different purposes across different sectors. The coalescing of practitioners from a diverse background will enable tracking of a growing community of practitioners working in this field and help understand how to support future growth in this sector.
Design practice community - For the design practitioners working on social innovation projects in the UK, participation in the workshop will be an opportunity to make connections, share best practices, learn about the Asia-Pacific context and identify project opportunities. For UK based practitioners looking to find opportunities to work in Asia-Pacific, the workshop will help them understand the similarities and differences between the UK and Asia-Pacific and to identify qualities, skills, mindsets and conditions. For Asia-Pacific practitioners, participation in the public symposium and workshop will enable them to hear stories of successes and failures from the region, and learn from UK practices. Attendance at the events will offer opportunities to connect with people from incubators, NGOS, think tanks, innovation hubs, social entrepreneurs, social venture funds and governmental departments. For the invited speakers, it would offer an international platform to showcase their work and to extend their reach beyond their locality. This will strengthen their standing in their community and demonstrate value they could bring to future project bids. The additional resources published on the project website will also provide a range of varied examples in different countries, offering inspiration and connection to other practitioners and provide a way to track project notices in the future.
Social innovators and social entrepreneurs - social innovators and entrepreneurs are the individuals and teams that are responsible for initiating, developing and creating social development projects and social enterprises. For the invited speakers, it would offer an international platform to showcase and disseminate work. It would also offer an opportunity to meet other people working in this area, share best practices and create new networks. The published case studies, talks, reports and academic papers on the website will be a valuable resource to help people outside the sector understand the range and type of work practiced in the region. The examples collected and disseminated through the online platform will also provide them with successful exemplars that can be used to lobby for funds to support current and new projects.
Policy-makers, legislators and their advisors - With the increasing use of design to facilitate social innovation, the research will be help policy-makers understand the role, impact and conditions for the use of design to facilitate more effective social innovation projects. Learnings from the events and resources should inform the creation of policies that will establish and build a support structure in countries where there is a lack of infrastructure for this space. Academic outputs such as a journal special issue and a conference paper will be used to support evidence based policy making approach.
Government departments and local government - Many governments are often supporting social innovation, and this traction is increasing globally. They are a key stakeholder in initiating, enabling and sustaining social innovation.The proposed events will help disseminate the work to a wider audience and provide more visibility of local initiatives to their respective national agencies and departments.
National Design Boards/Councils - Project exemplars and other resources collated will provide evidence of impact of design in social innovation to organisations tasked to promote the use of design for different purposes across different sectors. The coalescing of practitioners from a diverse background will enable tracking of a growing community of practitioners working in this field and help understand how to support future growth in this sector.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Joyce Yee (Principal Investigator) | |
| Yoko Akama (Co-Investigator) |
Publications
Akama Y
(2019)
Special Issue: Embracing Plurality in Designing Social Innovation Practices
in Design and Culture
Teerapong K
(2023)
Entanglements of Designing Social Innovation in the Asia-Pacific
Tjahja C
(2022)
Being a sociable designer: reimagining the role of designers in social innovation
in CoDesign
Yee J
(2019)
Transformative Learning as Impact in Social Innovation
in Design and Culture
| Description | Important new research questions have opened up and we identified 6 key themes to explore related to design and social innovation in Asia-Pacific: Cultural Nuances, Relationship, Precariousness (risk/uncertainty), Temporality, Ethics and Impact. We have used these 6 themes to frame a number of projects going forward beyond the project funding. Firstly its being used as a theoretical framework for our AHRC GCRF Network Plus funding proposal and project and secondly, as content for a special issue on Design and Social Innovation in Asia-Pacific in the 2019 Design and Culture journal. We have also focused in on the theme of Social Impact Evaluation, leading to the 2017 Symposium in Kuala Lumpur, and a further workshop targeted at funders in Singapore in 2019. The outcome of these engagement has led to discussion with the British Council to develop an evaluative practice framework for the creative practitioners they support in Southeast Asia. Through the activities of the network, we have fostered new links and collaborations with organisations involved in social innovations in Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar and Cambodia. These links are being utilised through the AHRC GCRF Network Plus funding bid and these organisations are named collaborators on the bid. We have also connected with Asia-Pacific academics and they too have been named as Co-Investigators in the funding bid. We have also carefully paired UK and AP researchers with AP practitioners to co-author papers for the Design & Culture journal based on those 6 themes. This was published in 2019. |
| Exploitation Route | Design practice community - For the design practitioners working on social innovation projects in UK, participation in the UK-based workshop was an opportunity to make connections, share best practices, learn about the Asia-Pacific context and identify project opportunities for collaboration and work. For example, Bas Raijmakers from STBY(a member of the research network) has used the opportunity to explore the AP landscape and have took the opportunity to expand their existing REACH network into Thailand. For UK based practitioners looking to find opportunities to work in Asia-Pacific, the workshop has helped them understand the similarities and differences between the UK and Asia-Pacific and to identify qualities, skills, mindsets and conditions. This has led to an invitation to the RSA for example to share findings from the DESIAP Research Network. For Asia-Pacific practitioners, participation in the public symposium and workshop enabled them to hear stories of successes and failures from the region, and learn from UK practices. It offered them opportunities to connect with people from incubators, NGOS, think tanks, innovation hubs, social entrepreneurs, social venture funds and governmental departments. For the invited speakers, it gave them an international platform to showcase their work and to extend their reach beyond their locality. This has strengthen their standing in their community and demonstrate value they could bring to future project bids. The additional resources published on the project website has also provided a range of varied examples in different countries, offering inspiration and connection to other practitioners and provide a way to track project notices in the future. The website will continue to be updated with case studies from AP. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Creative Economy Education |
| URL | https://desiap.org/insights/design-and-social-innovation-research-network-ahrc-report-2017/ |
| Description | The Designing Social Innovation in Asia-Pacific Network (DESIAP) has successfully facilitated knowledge exchange, learning, and increased collaborations among a geographically dispersed social innovation community working to deliver social impact. The research has established international focus and influenced the development of design and social innovation (DSI) practices in Asia-Pacific. The establishment of the network has supported over 100 delivery and funding organisations from various sectors to better understand how to use design to deliver improved social outcomes. The work has impacted on the professional practice of designers and funders by demonstrating the value of a design approach and offering frameworks to guide more culturally guided practices. It has led to the development of a culturally-grounded understanding of a growing field of practice that challenges western-centric theories of design by prioritising indigenous knowledge. The research has enabled Asia-Pacific organisations who were already using design methods to establish a stronger professional identity as design and social innovation (DSI) practitioners. Subsequent work on evaluation approaches has helped transform the way organisations use evaluation and has resulted in improved social outcomes for the marginalised and excluded communities they serve. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2018 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy |
| Impact Types | Cultural Societal Economic |
| Description | Communities Driving Change programme |
| Amount | £4,150 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Young Foundation |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2020 |
| End | 12/2020 |
| Description | RMIT Enabling Capacities Fund |
| Amount | $10,000 (AUD) |
| Organisation | RMIT University |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | Australia |
| Start | 05/2017 |
| End | 12/2017 |
| Description | Supporting a place-based creative economy: Insights from UK and Thailand |
| Amount | £10,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | British Council |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2022 |
| End | 03/2023 |
| Description | UK-Based Researcher on Creative and Cultural Districts in Thailand |
| Amount | £43,286 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | 100955.003 |
| Organisation | British Council |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2019 |
| End | 03/2020 |
| Description | Women's leadership in designing social innovation: mutual learning in the Asia-Pacific |
| Amount | £135,449 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | AH/W006952/1 |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2021 |
| End | 01/2023 |
| Title | Reflective and Learning Evaluation framework for Designing Social Innovation |
| Description | This framework has been developed through the Designing Social Innovation in Asia-Pacific (DESIAP) network to support practitioners and researchers reflect and learn as part of their project impact evaluation. The framework emerged from the DESIAP gathering in Kuala Lumpur in 2017, and have subsequently been developed over the years through working externally with the Young Foundation and internally through the DESIAP Young Women Mentoring programme (2021-2023). The framework is based on 3 core principles of building trust, participatory collaboration and being grounded in place, culture and locality, and has a series of questions used to support ongoing reflective and learning cycles to support practitioners to deliver social impact. We place this framework alongside dominant and traditional models of evaluation to highlight epistemic, political and power differences between them, and reinforce the importance of diversifying evaluative approaches. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This framework has been used to support two programmes: 1. Communities Driving Change Programme by the Young Foundation, UK. 2. Women's leadership in designing social innovation: mutual learning in the Asia-Pacific (funded by the AHRC) |
| URL | https://desiap.org/insights/being-community-and-culturally-led-tensions-and-pluralities-in-evaluatin... |
| Title | Social Impact Assessment Framework |
| Description | The framework consist of a set of questions to help social entrepreneur s define, track and reflect on their personal, organisational and wider impact of their work. We have turned these questions into a series of prompt cards that can be used by participants on their own or through facilitated sessions. These prompts are divided into 3 stages of the ASEAN Impact Challenge Accelerator programme: Define, Develop, Deliver. The prompts enable participants to answer a series of questions linked to social impact and their own personal development and help them reveal and track impact through their development. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The Social Impact Assessment Framework was used in the ASEAN Impact Challenge Accelerator programme in 2017 and has now been incorporated into the future Global Goals Labs Framework that will be used by the Scope Group in Malaysia. |
| Description | 21st Century Leadership Skills for Young Cambodian Leaders |
| Organisation | Impact Hub Phnom Penh |
| Country | Cambodia |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | The CLEAR project funded by the British Embassy and delivered by Impact Hub Phnom Penh (IHPP) is designed to provide accessible, locally rooted and driven, relevant and research based, self-sustaining leadership development for business professionals across the country. The online programme is aimed at young professionals with limited management experience across the country. The training programme will be launched in January 2019 and will go on for 6 months. I was involved as a research consultant on this project, advising on the use of design-lead methodology through which participants build learning loops through practice, self-reflection and learning, to develop 21st century leadership skills. I also led the design and development of the programme impact evaluation to establish the causal effect of the programme so we are able to make informed decisions in future improvements to the programme. It will also evidence to our funders on the impact achieved through the intervention. |
| Collaborator Contribution | IMPP lead the project conceptualisation and implementation. I have listed down their contribution based on the following activities: Activity 1: Initially, design-led research supported the design of context specific leadership tutorials for an online multimedia platform.They drew on their network of social entrepreneurs and members to identify initial insights into 21st Century Skills relevant to a Cambodian context. Activity 2: Six Khmer language, video tutorials was created, covering relevant 21st leadership topics. Each video featured up to date and context specific information on relevant leadership topics, case studies to explore the topic through real life examples and actionable steps including worksheets, self-reflection questions and personal development and impact measurement tools. Materials are aimed at junior through to senior management by focusing on differing skills sets, objectives and experiences. Activity 3: Tutorial roll-out was accompanied by a national wide communications campaign. A Facebook group is used to deliver the videos and will facilitate a discussion forum through which participants will be encourage to share and reflect on the videos and real life implementation of techniques and topics discussed, with the aim of foster an achieve and learning-by-doing community. |
| Impact | https://www.impacthubphnompenh.online/ |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Connecti-city 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to take part in the Connecti:City 2022 plenary session that covers the topics on Investing in social infrastucture with CE: where and whom?, Creative and cultural industries and the 2030 Agenda now and CE: a vector for South-South and multilateral cooperation?. CONNECTI:CITY 2022 is the 3rd time the event has been held, after previously being held in 2019 and 2021 which was attended by more than 500 participants. At CONNECTI:CITY 2021, quoted "We are actively promoting a creative economy that is resilient, inclusive and also sustainable in the pandemic era,". This is in line with the Indonesian Presidency for G20 which carries the theme 'Recover Together - Recover Stronger'. Connecti:City 2022 was held from on 14th - 15th of March, 2022 at Museum Konperensi Asia Afrika, Bandung. CONNECTI:CITY 2022 was official side event of Urban-20 (U20) and one of the only conferences highlighting Creative Economy for G20. The U20 was launched in 2017 under the leadership of Mayor Larreta of Buenos Aires and Mayor Hidalgo of Paris to bring together mayors from major G20 cities to inform the discussions of national leaders at the G20. The U20 in this sense aims at facilitating lasting engagement between the G20 and cities, raise the profile of urban issues in the G20 agenda, and establish a forum for cities to develop a collective message and perspective to inform G20 negotiations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | DESIAP 2017 Bangkok Symposium and Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Our 2016 DESIAP Public Symposium and Workshop was held at the Thailand Creative and Design Center (TCDC) in Bangkok from the 12th to 14th of July 2016. It was our second public symposium bringing together an exciting range of practitioners and researchers of design and social innovation from over ten countries around Asia-Pacific. This symposium and its accompanying 2-day workshop builds on the outcomes from our first event, From Things to Services Symposium and Workshop, which took place at the National Design Centre, Singapore, on 5-6th February 2015. The event heralded the Design and Social Innovation in Asia-Pacific (DESIAP) platform initiated by RMIT and Northumbria University as a place for practitioners in this region working in the field of Social Innovation to coalesce. A number of outcomes have emerged from the Bangkok event: - The creation of a 'Playbook' aimed at creating a simple guide to explain what design and social innovation is and how to go about using design approach, tools and methods. Two thai practitioners have taken a lead on the creation of this playbook and is aimed specifically at a Thai audience. - A special issue journal proposal for the Design and Culture journal. This involves collaboration between UK/AP academics with AP practitioners. - Further collaboration with one of our network member organisation STBY with Thai practitioners who attended the event to set up a platform to deliver and train people in using the DIY toolkit which was developed by STBY with Nesta. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://desiap.org/desiap-research-network-symposium-workshop-2016/ |
| Description | DESIAP 2017 Symposium and Workshop on Impact and Evaluation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | DESIAP KL was our 3rd public symposium following Singapore (2015) and Bangkok (2016), held at Majlis Rekabentuk Malaysia (Malaysia Design Council) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. DESIAP KL brought together participants from around South-East Asia who are already doing socially impactful work. 12 participants from Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Indonesia were invited to share their experiences on issues they are each tackling and to identify challenges and approaches related to evaluating their work for impact through a 2-day workshop. They were selected based on their catalytic role in social innovation and entrepreneurship networks in their localities, making the mutual learning they acquire go further through their sharing, mentoring and support to communities back in their own contexts. The focus of impact evaluation was selected because it is a significant issue and interest for many change-makers across the world. Evaluating impact is a required outcome of social innovation practice, and yet it is challenging when the scale and focus of change aims to address societal problems, especially in a community-centred and culturally grounded way. The participants reported that they have a better understanding of developmental evaluation and how to improve their practices around evaluation. The following public symposium attracted 75 people ranging from social innovation practitioners, social entrepreneurs, designers, undergraduate and postgraduate students. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://desiap.org/desiap2017kl/ |
| Description | DESIAP Rekanegara |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The talk was organised by Rekanegara, a not-for-profit group set up by Malaysian design academics and practitioners as a platform to discuss and debate current issues in design. They invited the PI to talk at a Social Innovation theme day on the issues and challenges of design working in the space of social innovation. The talk generated interests amongst the Rekanegara community evidenced by the discussion during the event and on their Facebook page. The event also gave the PI an opportunity to meet and make contact with a social entrepreneur (who was the other invited speaker) and help connect what she does in her work with designers. Rekanegara has also indicated an interest to support future DESIAP network events and discussions are underway to hold the next DESIAP symposium in Malaysia. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | DESIAP Sharing Workshop in Newcastle upon Tyne |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The aim the workshop is bring together UK-based practitioners and researchers working in design and social innovation to share practices as well learn from each other. The research team shared learnings from the Bangkok DESIAP symposium - distilled in 6 themes (Time/temporality, Ethics, Cultural nuances, Relations, Precariousness/risk & Impact) and used these themes to cohere thinking around issues. The workshop consisted of researchers and participants who have taken part in original public symposium in Bangkok as well as new participants from around the UK. Conversations with the participants sparked discussion around practices and models of social innovation and how it related to various sectors (private, public or voluntary). This has led to the PI and Co-I being invited to share the research findings at the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) in June 2017. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | DESIAP workshop at Impact Hub in Yangon |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | On the 26th April 2017, the DESIAP team ran a workshop at Impact Hub, Yangon, Myanmar. The purpose of the team's visit was to: 1) Bring local change-makers together to hear what people are already doing, 2) Introduce DESIAP through examples of projects from other countries, 3) Identify barriers, resources and opportunities for Design and Social Innovation and 4) Discuss how a regional network like DESIAP might play a role in sharing knowledge and assist in capacity building in Myanmar. The assembled 14 participants were a mixture of researchers, academics and representatives from social enterprises and NPOs who were doing impactful work towards enabling and sustaining social outcomes. This gathering extended the events that Impact Hub Yangon was already successfully seeding and facilitating, and it brought together a range of different sectors, perhaps for the very first time. We conducted two main activities in the workshop. Firstly, we presented a framework to help participant understand how design might fit in their context and to help the DESIAP team understand the range of work undertaken by the participants. The conversations indicated that Design was often strongly associated with art, crafts and cultural artefacts, offered through some educational institutions and other forms of traditional approaches like apprenticeships. We also heard that Design as method or mindset was not taught commonly. Several participants indicated the need for such training, and how capacity building for Design and Social Innovation could be possible if resources were made available or if courses were developed and provided through Universities. This exercise also enabled the participants to get to know each other's work and enabled participants to build and expand their network. The 2nd activity was an asset mapping exercise. The participants were introduced to an asset mapping tool, adapted by Alison Prendiville for this workshop, to enable the group to examine key components that contextualises their work and cohere a collective understanding of actors, challenges, outcomes, indicators and assets in undertaking Design and Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship. CHALLENGES FOR D&SI in MYANMAR: 1) Shifting to a democratic society- Some indicated that despite people wanting to collaborate, this practice does not come automatically or very easily. Main challenges seemed to centre on entrenched siloed behaviours, rigid bureaucratic processes, and lack of trust and transparency. These are common obstacles to Design and Social Innovation observed around the world, and it is not surprising that the citizens here are still learning how to transition into a democratic society, express their views and develop different alternatives to a top-down approach to decision making. 2) Transitioning from a NPO/NGO to a Social Enterprise - Discussions on transitioning charity models to become social enterprise surfaced prominently. Reliance upon donations and overseas aid may become unreliable, potentially trapping some organisation into short-term cycles of application and delivery. This makes it challenging to become self-sustaining and plan long-term impacts. The potential for social entrepreneurship is to create a business model from day one based on generating a revenue stream. However, the idea of mixing economic and social outcomes can be difficult, for many who believe being socially minded means to give to charity. Creating a business with social outcomes is a new idea for some. Here, Buddhist practices of giving money directly to the poor or donating to organisations seems significant to this context and was highlighted during the conversation. There was strong sense of giving back to those that had helped in many instances like the Buddhist monastries. How does such cultural and religious practices blend with Western entrepreneurship business models? Could a third, hybrid model be created? Many other obstacles were identified as challenges to social enterprises: Lack of human resources, and difficulty in resource mobilisation; Accessibility (resources, people); Access to finance (eg. bank loans or micro-financing) for smaller enterprises; Lack of systems and infrastructures for sharing or transparency; Law, tax incentives or regulations for social enterprises are poorly implemented or communicated; Regional conflict, and language and cultural barriers; Stability for children and young people; Pressures on children to start work as early as possible; Limited experience of mobile technologies and social medial; Dependency on charity culture. A vast amount of "ASSETS" were identified by the participants, indicating strong potential of an ecosystem of Design and Social Innovation to flourish: Generous, open and caring nature of citizens; Open-minded leaders, including some government ministers; People are wanting change. Energy and optimism for a new democratic society; Possibility to "leap-frog" to new models, technology and approaches (e.g. Grab South-East Asia's competitor to Uber and Uber itself to try and regulate the taxi industry in Yangon); Making change visible and transparent. Share failures as well as successes; Create spaces, forums, events and platforms to share lessons and stories of how things have been achieved. This can help incentivise people and shift entrenched behaviours ; Desire for innovation, and some acceptance for radical processes; Young people are beginning to create alternative futures to bring about changes quicker; Build trust through traditional, cultural and social practices, rather than replace them. eg. some identified how Buddhist monks or priests perform a unique role ina community, often perceived as trustworthy, knowledgeable, powerful and neutral (politically) to act as influential leaders and brokers; Build on existing international collaboration and opportunities (eg. MOU partnerships); Leverage existing knowledge, skill sets, social and cultural capital assets. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | DESIAP workshop at the Cambodian Development Resource Institute in Phnom Penh |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | On the 25th April 2017, a team from the DESIAP network ran a workshop hosted by Cambodia Development Resource Institute (CDRI), Phnom Penh Cambodia. The purpose of the team's visit was to: 1) Bring local change-makers together to hear what people are already doing; 2) Introduce DESIAP through examples of projects from other countries; 3) Identify barriers, resources and opportunities for Design and Social Innovation and 4) Discuss how a regional network like DESIAP might play a role in sharing knowledge and assist in capacity building in Cambodia. The assembled 22 participants were a mixture of researchers, academics and representatives from social enterprises and NPOs who were doing impactful work towards enabling and sustaining social outcomes. This gathering extended the events that Impact Hub Phnom Penh and CDRI was already successfully seeding and facilitating, and it brought together a range of different sectors, perhaps for the very first time. We conducted two main activities in the workshop. Firstly, we presented a framework to help participant understand how design might fit in their context and to help the DESIAP team understand the range of work undertaken by the participants. The conversations indicated that Design was often strongly associated with art, crafts and cultural artefacts, offered through some educational institutions and other forms of traditional approaches like apprenticeships. We also heard that Design as method or mindset was not taught commonly. Several participants indicated the need for such training, and how capacity building for Design and Social Innovation could be possible if resources were made available or if courses were developed and provided through Universities. This exercise also enabled the participants to get to know each other's work and enabled participants to build and expand their network. The 2nd activity was an asset mapping exercise. The participants were introduced to an asset mapping tool, adapted by Alison Prendiville for this workshop, to enable the group to examine key components that contextualises their work and cohere a collective understanding of actors, challenges, outcomes, indicators and assets in undertaking Design and Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Participants candidly shared their stories and experiences. This can foster empathy, a sense of companionship and build stronger relationships, which are all central to create flourishing conditions of Design and Social Innovation. Beyond nurturing social capital and networks, this activity aimed to facilitate awareness of the local Design and Social Innovation ecosystem and to identify the assets participants all possessed in creating such conditions. In addition shared agendas emerged through some of the discussions. General insights from this activity are briefly summarised next. Cambodia is transitioning from a lower to a lower-middle income society. We listened how this meant that overseas aid that was once relied upon by organisations may need to shift towards private, public and government sector partnerships to support the need of the growing middle-income citizens. Yet cross-sector collaboration is easier said than done. Trust was identified as fundamental to build new ways of collaborating, but many identified challenges of entrenched siloed behaviours, rigid bureaucratic processes, and lack of transparency. It may take time and generational shifts to foster openness and trust-abundant cultures. These are common obstacles to Design and Social Innovation observed around the world, and it is not surprising that the citizens here are still learning how to have trust in institutions due to Cambodia's political and social history, confidently express their views and develop different alternatives to a top-down approach to decision making. Many other obstacles were identified as challenges to social enterprises: Lack of human resources due to quality education, and difficulty in resource mobilisation; Accessibility (resources, people); Access to finance (eg. bank loans or micro-financing) for smaller enterprises; Governments infrastructures to support social enterprises (eg. law, taxes, accessibility); Many educational institutions might not have staff or teaching cultures to equip students to be creative and critical thinkers; Working across different sectors due to siloed work practices; Lack of government support and funding for research in academic institutions; Young people in rural areas have difficulty in accessing quality education; Slow adaptation to new technology; Foreign aid, investment, agendas and actors can often dominate leading the change, so how to transition ownership and build capacity in local people?; Hierarchical society; Overuse of facebook as a social media platform with a slow up take of other mobile services. There is a level of mobile phone literacy that needs to be built. A vast amount of "ASSETS" were identified by the participants, indicating strong potential of an ecosystem of Design and Social Innovation to flourish: Opportunities for Information Communication Technology (ICT) e.g. 80% mobile use; While small in numbers, educational courses in Universities are already teaching social entrepreneurship as units within specific programmes; Building on existing local and regional networks, to actively create international links; Create spaces, forums, events and platforms to share lessons and stories of how things have been achieved. This can help incentivise people and shift entrenched behaviours; Enabling the voice and activities of young people to become more visible; Leverage existing knowledge, skill sets, social and cultural capital assets; Making change visible and transparent. Share failures as well as successes; Creating opportunities to bring different people from different sectors together in a safe environment to 'rehearse' and prototype scenarios of collaboration; Identifying champions who could break down silos and work across government departments. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Impact Evaluation Workshop with Funders |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | DESIAP KL report, Impact Evaluation in Designing Social Innovation: Insights from DESIAP KL Workshop and Symposium, written by Akama, Yee, Hill and Tjahja, was launched in Singapore 2019 at a gathering funded by Northumbria and RMIT University (ECP). This event took place in Singapore because it is a key hub of funding agencies with regional offices that support social impact work in Southeast Asia. Invitations were sent through networks affiliated with DESIAP, such as Asia Venture Philanthropy Network, Social Innovation Exchange and Asian Women Social Entrepreneurship Network. This gathered 9 leading funding agencies in the region to begin discussions on ways to co-explore alternative impact evaluation approaches. The participants that gathered included Kenn Foundation, Lien Centre for Social Innovation, Tondo Foundation, JustCause, Asia P3 Hub, Asian Venture Philanthropy Network and the British Council. As a result of the workshop, we have been working with the British Council and Tondo Foundation to develop a research project focused on developing their evaluative practices. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://desiap.org/events/impact-and-evaluation-funders-workshop-2019/ |
| Description | Impact Evaluation Workshop with the Young Foundation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to run a workshop with the Young Foundation's Communities Driving Change programme team to introduce them to the Designing Social Innovation Impact Evaluation framework. The workshop led to further discussion on ways in which we can support the organisation develop an evaluation practice that is more suited to their way of working. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Master of Social Innovation for Sustainable Development, International Labour Organisation, UN (Turin, Italy) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | DESIAP co-founder Joyce Yee was invited to run a day-long session with the students from the Master of Social Innovation for Sustainable Development programme run by the International Labour Organisation of the UN. The session was held at the ILO campus in Turin, Italy and comprised the introduction of design as a contributing discipline to social innovation studies. She introduced the DESIAP network and used examples from Asia-Pacific to draw out the theoretical frameworks of designing social innovation practice. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.itcilo.org/courses/master-social-innovation-sustainable-development-ed-2020-2021 |
| Description | Panel discusion on Democracy, Design and Public Policy |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This event was organised by the AHRC-funded Design & Policy Network, led by University of the Arts London (UAL) and University of Manchester. The Design and Policy Network brings together researchers in design, the humanities, political science with practitioners in government and public policy and design. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the network is based jointly at the University of the Arts London and in the politics department at the University of Manchester and will run for 18 months between May 2022-November 2023. The aim of the network is to bring together researchers and PhD students in studies of design, political science, public administration, the humanities and practitioners working in public policy, public services and related organisations such as think tanks to engage, discuss, explore potential collaborations and develop new understandings of the potential and limitations of design in public policy. This event is the Network's third workshop, exploring the relationship between design, democracy and the formulation of public policy. T?he workshop began with provocations from invited speakers, Prof Joyce Yee (Northumbria University), Prof Michael Saward (University of Warwick) and Catherine Greig (Founder and Director of make:good ltd) followed by discussion and an activity in breakout groups. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.arts.ac.uk/ual-social-design-institute/design-and-policy-network |
| Description | Seoul Upcycling Festival 2019 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | DESIAP co-founder Yoko Akama presented at the Seoul Upcycling Festival 2019 and introduced the DESIAP network. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Social Problem Solution Design Forum (Seoul, South Korea) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | DESIAP co-founder, Yoko Akama spoke at the Social Problem Solution Design Forum held in South Korea on the 25th of September 2019. This event was held as part of the annual Seoul Design Week. This year's theme is 'Impact on Social Innovation'. The list of international speakers includes Ifeoma Ibo, Yoori Koo, Sookhee Park, Sarah Shulman, Sang Yeop Han and Joonsang Baek. Her talk introduced the topic of evaluating social impact in design and social innovation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://ssdf2019.modoo.at/ |
| Description | University Malaya (Malaysia) - Master of Science & Communication Public Engagement class |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The talk introduces the concept of 'designing social innovation' and provide examples of how design is supporting social innovation activities in Asia-Pacific region through two case studies. It offered a broad overview of Design and Social Innovation fields, touching on features of designing social innovation as a practice. It was aimed at Masters of Science Communication and Public Engagement students who mainly have a background in science and technology studies. It introduced them to how design as a discipline usually associate with the creation of 'things' is used to facilitate creative activities with communities and generated interest and discussion on what 'designing' means when done by citizens. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | University of Derby Online Global Challenges Week Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This event was organised by the University of Derby to celebrate research that is supported by the Global Challenges Research Funding (GCRF) and addresses Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). It brought together a wide range of speakers from a wide of discipline to share insights, knowledge and experiences in a range of research related work addressing the UNSDGs. My talk contributed to a seminar focused on vocational education and training in the context of international development. It gave an opportunity to share outcomes from our DESIAP network to a non-design audience, mainly focused on vocational education. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | WHAT IS THE VALUE IN AND OF CREATIVE PRACTICE? SDI PANEL EVENT ON TUESDAY 14 DECEMBER 2021 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I was invited as part of a panel discussion to explore the value of creative practice. My own contribution draws from the ongoing work through the DESIAP network on Impact Evaluation, advocating the use of evaluation as a form of learning. The aim was to use this as another opportunity to share our work through a wider and different audience, and to see how it intersects with other disciplines (accounting, impact, arts) in how creative practice is valued. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qb3HBf9ZpU |