Learning for Change: The hybrid nature of social innovation: its opportunities and risks of clashing

The aim of TRANSIT is to figure out “how social innovation leads to transformative change”. Before Transit and my minor “Advancing new perspectives on economic thinking” I never heard about the term social innovation to be honest. However I have been in contact with the concept at my internship at Youth interactive “A creative entrepreneurship academy” in Santa Barbara. Youth Interactive is an afterschool Entrepreneurial Arts Academy and mentors youth led businesses. The goal is to guide students, who did not get an equal chance to education, to start up an own business. Not only do they get additional extracurricular credits, but it also boosts their confidence for a future career.

Furthermore at the TRANSIT conference I had a talk with a young researcher from the British council that set ups FabLabs and Makerspaces in London and China. She is one of the founders of the project “Living Research” which brings UK and Chinese makers and academics together. The aim is to understand the recent boom in maker culture in China, and to explore the potential crossover between Chinese and UK maker practice. One of the things they do is providing training in the technology sector for women since inequality remains an issue in China.

At the session “The hybrid nature of social innovation: its opportunities and risks of clashing values” I learned that the use of hybridity is essential and in order for it to work there should be a balance between state, market and the civil society. Unfortunately this is still an obstacle for all the aforementioned projects. I learned that people in general and business could have a major impact on society, than sometimes a government. The reason in my opinion could be because the way of working is more focused on certain area and therefore more effective. An additional reason in my opinion could be because it is easier for an individual than a government to observe what needs to change.