Social Innovation and University Curricula
In preparation for the IAU Global Meeting of Associations 6, this issue - IAU Horizons, 21, 1 - offers reports on IAU priority areas, new projects and initiatives, especially LGEU, and upcoming events and conferences.
By Francesc Xavier Grau and Maria Marques. Social Innovation and University Curricula
Social Innovation is a concept that is still in search of a consolidated definition. The European Union uses the definition given by Murray, Caulier-Grice and Mulgan in the Open Book of Social Innovation (March, 2010): “Social innovations are new ideas (products, services and models) that simultaneously meet social needs (more effectively than alternatives) and create new social relationships or collaborations”. Recently, on the blog he developed in the context of his UNESCO Chair in Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education, Budd Hall questioned the definition used by the Stanford Center for Social Innovation: “a novel solution to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable or just, than present solutions and for which the value created accrues primarily to society as a whole rather than private individuals.” In fact, the worries Budd Hall expresses show that there is a risk in only using a new name for an old concept whereas we embrace and consolidate the status quo, and lose an opportunity to make a difference, of effectively acting for a more just and sustainable society. Download IAU Horizons, 21, 1.