Social Innovation Theories & Practice

Catalog description

Addressing eco-social crises such as climate change, racial injustice and wealth inequality requires collective efforts and creative solutions from all sectors of society. This course provides students with a deeper understanding of social innovation as a dynamic process of transforming dominant, harmful institutions and pursuing planetary wellbeing. By taking a constructionist and glocal lens, this class examines different schools of thought on what constitutes “social good” and how to achieve it, highlighting related actors and factors driving current movements of social innovation. Throughout the course, we draw on cases of enterprises, organizations, movements, policies, programs and more – in domains as diverse as ethical fashion, youth development, ecological conservation and food justice – to highlight key lessons and approaches in understanding and innovating around wicked problems. Through critical reading, creative and reflexive assignments and interactive classroom activities, students explore pathways to changing systems and reimagine their own roles within collaborative innovation ecosystems. A final project invites students to design their unique change making toolkit that they can use to tackle issues about which they are passionate.