social innovation – Social Enterprise Development in the Baltic Sea Region

BOOK
Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship Fundamentals, Concepts, and Tools

Social entrepreneurship and social innovation both seek to improve the world through social change. Whereas social entrepreneurship revolves around the business side of change, social innovation focuses on the processes through which that change is generated. This textbook provides a comprehensive analysis of both topics, covering all the characteristics and elements of social innovation and social entrepreneurship, from a conceptual and practical perspective.

The book includes detailed chapters on:

Social Innovation: Origins, Defnitions, and Main Elements
Characteristics, Types, and Processes for the Construction of Social Innovations
Generation of Values by Social Innovations
Basics, Characteristics, and Differences of Social Entrepreneurship
Similarities and Differences Among Schools of Social Entrepreneurship
Characteristics of the Social Entrepreneur
Business Models of Social Enterprises
From Corporate Social Responsibility to Corporate Social Innovation
Social Innovation from Companies: Social Purpose Business Models
Social Intrapreneurship, the Main Factor of Social Innovations Within Traditional Companies
Social Impact in Social Innovations: Defnition, Design, and Evaluation
Impact Investment, a Key Element in the Promotion of Social Innovation
Alignment of Social Innovation with Sustainable Development Goals

The read the whole book click HERE or download below.

This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

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BOOK
Social Innovation: Comparative perspectives

Social innovation is a topic that is more and more being discussed on both national and European levels (hence, the announcement of this being a strategic priority EU wide). To better be able to provide social impact in the society and find novel solutions also for operating social enterprises, it is necessary to explore how social innovation comes into life and what aspects are necessary to foster it.

This open access book is a valuable source for understanding in particular the organizations’ capacity to generate novel ideas, ways and means of doing things, and of addressing public and social problems of many kinds.

This volume’s primary assertion is that the third sector, specifically through stimulating civic involvement, is best placed to produce social innovation, outperforming business firms and state agencies in this regard. By investigating actor contributions to social innovation across seven fields of activity, Social Innovation: Comparative Perspectives develops our understanding of why and how the third sector is central to functioning, cohesive and viable societies.

THE CONTENT OF THE BOOK

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Impact of the Third Sector as Social Innovation The third sector or non-profit sector has increasingly gained, in recent years, policy recognition and attracted academic attention. Researchers have analyzed non-profit organizations from different perspectives, usually emphasizing specific roles this set of institutions is assumed to perform.

The read the whole book click HERE or download below.

This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

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PAPER
Youth Associations and Entrepreneurship: Insights from Case Studies in Portugal

Young people in western societies currently live in a paradoxical social condition: never has a generation been so qualified, nurturing high aspirations and expectations throughout school, regarding the value of employability and professional progression, while unemployment rates reach worrying values in younger population, a situation that is becoming structural. While discussing how the tools for the development of skills for entrepreneurship in the young population can be integrated into educational curricula, there has been a movement around youth associations for some time, which in Portugal has reached a significant level, enabling the development of these competences, without this fact being duly recognized in general.

Youth associations act as citizenship schools, where young people have opportunities to experiment, develop ideas and put into practice their solutions to everyday problems, being spaces for the development of a series of skills that are consistent with the development of entrepreneurship. In doing so, they are involved in the development of their communities and, at the same time, is given the opportunity to develop their personal, social and professional skills.

Participating in a youth association is a possible way to strengthen skills and tools, to gain awareness of the context in which young people are inserted and to commit to its development, while at the same time acquiring a series of technical–professional knowledge. Throughout the work, it is assumed that participation in a youth association enables young people to develop a series of skills and, consequently, to increase their entrepreneurial capacities.

In this way, it is crucial to understand the impact of youth associations on the development of youth entrepreneurship, verifying which dimensions it is associated with, as well as identifying the existing challenges and opportunities, in order to invest in the creation of young people’s skills.

This article reflects on the contribution of a specific associative movement, youth associations, in promoting entrepreneurship among its participants, young people. The study is based on a qualitative approach, through the study of comparative cases. Data for analysis was obtained from youth associations in mainland Portugal, using two methods of information collection, which work in a complementary way, document analysis and interviews. The organization and analysis of the collected data were carried out based on content analysis techniques.

The article is organized as follows. Section 2 is dedicated to exploring the interconnections of entrepreneurship and youth. Section 3 briefly describes materials and methods used in the empirical research. Section 4 presents and discusses the main findings. The article ends with a conclusion, highlighting key insights from the research.

SOME OF THE CONCLUSIONS
The development of spaces for the involvement of young people and for the development of their skills, with youth associations being a preferential means for this to become an increasingly possible reality, is central to the affirmation of engaged citizenry. Addressing the existing challenges and opportunities provided by youth organizations can be achieved by activating young people for participation through associativism, reinforcing the effectiveness of support programs and recognition of the merit and social impact of this movement. At a more concrete level, this may be achieved by creating and/or optimizing youth participation spaces such as youth councils, creating and implementing youth plans and projects directed to young people such as participatory budgets, youth parliaments and other related initiatives.

The socioeconomic crisis that youth is facing in Portugal is also present in other parts of Europe or even globally. This research was an opportunity to explore not only how important youth associations might be for young Portuguese in particular, but also suggest the significance and relevance for youth to engage in entrepreneurial activities in other parts of the world.

The full article is available HERE or as a download below.

To cite this article: António, N., & Pinto, H. (2022). Youth Associations and Entrepreneurship: Insights from Case Studies in Portugal. Merits, 2(2), 62-80.
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.3390/ merits2020007

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This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

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Youth initiative: a framework for youth entrepreneurship

We want to share with you the report written by Rossella Soldi (Progress Consulting S.r.l.) and Simona Cavallini (Fondazione FORMIT). It does not represent the official views of the Committee of the Regions.

Read the whole document here:

https://cor.europa.eu/en/engage/studies/Documents/Youth_initiative/youth-initiative.pdf

More information on the European Union and the Committee of the Regions is available online at http://www.europa.eu and http://www.cor.europa.eu respectively. Catalogue number: QG-04-17-375-EN-N ISBN: 978-92-895-0922-0 doi:10.2863/068300

This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

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Calling all youth social entrepreneurs!

In 2022 EC adopted the Social Economy Action Plan, which you can read on EC’s website (link below) or find more info on our platform. There are also more great opportunities to come, including the ones targeting youth! Read the intro from the www.socialeconomy.eu.org website!

Dearest friends of the European Social Economy community,

Last year ended up with the culmination of an amazing collective work to achieve the Social Economy Action Plan (SEAP), which is now available in 23 EU official languages. However, more than a culmination, the launch of the Social Economy Action Plan marks a new beginning, full of opportunities for the social economy to scale up, grow, innovate and continue providing collective solutions to societal, economic and environmental challenges.

In this year 2022, the implementation of the Social Economy Action Plan begins, and Social Economy Europe is ready to play an active role alongside with its members, partners, and with the wider social economy community: all hands are needed to achieve the ambitious objectives of SEAP for the period 2021-2030.

The Youth Entrepreneurship Policy Academy

To be launched in 2022 with a focus on female and social economy entrepreneurship

Follow this website here and see the latest news once it will be launched!

https://www.socialeconomy.eu.org/2022/01/17/2022-what-is-on-now-for-the-social-economy/

This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

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ARTICLE
Social innovation in the Baltic Sea Region

It is not a secret that social innovation is on the hype for the last few years and this is going to stay, at least in Europe. Several structural fund programs and initiatives are focused on the promotion, support and implementation of social innovation. The “broadness” of social innovation is incomprehensible, hence, debates occur often: “What is social innovation’’? There is no exact definition but different scopes and prisms of the terminology.

For instance, European Commission defines social innovations following:

Social innovations are new ideas that meet social needs, create social relationships and form new collaborations. These innovations can be products, services or models addressing unmet needs more effectively.

Another example is of definition ESF+ policy brief 2020 defines social innovation as following:

‘social innovations’ mean activities that are social both as to their ends and their means and in particular those which relate to the development and implementation of new ideas (concerning products, services and models) that simultaneously meet social needs and create new social relationships or collaborations, thereby benefiting society and boosting its capacity to act; In particular, (i) testing innovative solutions before scaling them, (ii) finding new ways of collaboration between the public, private and third sector, and (iii) supporting the transfer of learnings and innovations across borders, are the three principal areas to be addressed by the ESF+.

Besides, different aspects of terminology, there are also different directions, sections and areas where social innovation can be implemented, hence, important questions to be asked are:

How to develop pan-European social innovation and stimulate its scaling?
How to inspire public policies to be interested in supporting and implementing social innovation?
How to measure impact of social innovation in the most efficient and reliable way ?
How to promote social innovation in different fields and stimulate cross-sectoral cooperation?

Answers to these questions are still relevant and each European region tries to find its own solutions, as well as implement social innovation regionally. For instance, Alpine region has developed a strategy for social innovation that concerns the way to incentive the emergence of Social Innovation in the Alpine Space territories and also aims to organize the coherence and the governance of SI supports, to answer collectively to the region’s societal challenges.

Flagship initiative in BSR

Baltic Sea Region is developing its own social innovation flagship initiative. The aim of the Social innovation flagship at EUSBSR is to initiate, support and promote cross-sectoral – public, private and third sector’s cooperation, map the best knowledge exchange and cooperation models, involving society for optimal (co-design and co-creation) of the expected social solutions. Flagship expects to strengthened cross-sectoral cooperation and sectoral capacity building in the field of social innovation.

Whenever it is regional, national or very small local initiative, it is important to acknowledge that all of
the efforts contribute towards the more prosperous, healthy and sustainable societies across the Europe, hence, any effort made to innovate in this direction has to be appreciated.

Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash

This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

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STUDY
Systemic Design Principles in Social Innovation: A Study of Expert Practices and Design Rationale

In recent decades, design has expanded from a practice aimed at designing things to one that helps to address complex societal challenges. In this context, a field of practice called systemic design has emerged, which combines elements of systems thinking with elements of design. We use a case study approach to investigate how expert practitioners carry out systemic design work in the context of public and social innovation, and explore what we can learn from their practices and design rationales when we compare them to systems thinking theories and approaches.

Based on findings from five case studies, the authors present five systemic design principles:

opening up and acknowledging the interrelatedness of problems;
developing empathy with the system;
strengthening human relationships to enable creativity and learning;
influencing mental models to enable change;
adopting an evolutionary design approach to desired systemic change.

One way that scholars can contribute to this field is by continuing to monitor and describe emerging systemic design principles developed and performed at the forefront of the field, strengthening these learnings by building on the body of knowledge about systems thinking and design.

While the authors argue in this paper that designerly practices contribute to addressing complex problem situations, the findings from this study highlight that practitioners at the forefront of social innovation are developing more diverse forms of systemic design to effect change.

In this paper it is shown how the interdiscipline of systemic design contributes to tackling complex societal challenges. Even though authors have homed in on one area of knowledge and practice that social innovation practitioners draw on, systemic design is part of a larger body of transdisciplinary approaches.

For example, in addition to systems thinking and design, social innovators may use academic knowledge from social sciences and humanities, or other types of knowledge such as indigenous ways of knowing or community involvement. Transdisciplinary innovation is about placing interactions between disciplines and other types of knowledge in an integrated system with a social purpose, resulting in a continuously evolving and adapting practice.

Key to such transdisciplinary approaches is learning. As each complex problem situation is different, there is not one way of doing things and we must rely on adaptive practice, where practices are adapted to the problem context at hand.

Such adaptations require every actor concerned to engage in a continual and mutual learning process. Authors therefore stress the need for ongoing education together, through learning communities that include academics and practitioners across multiple disciplines. Learning engagements may include studies integrating multiple disciplines, such as the one presented in this paper, action research, and academic-practitioner collaborations.

The full article is available HERE or as a download below.

To cite this article: Van der Bijl-Brouwer, M., & Malcolm, B. (2020). Systemic design principles in social innovation: A study of expert practices and design rationales. She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, 6(3), 386-407.
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sheji.2020.06.001

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This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

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Tackling Green and Social Washing with Ethical Finance

This is the fourth and final episode of the miniseries Finance4Good. In this episode we introduce the ideas of green and social washing from the perspective of investors, and how the EU try to tackle the issue through an EU Taxonomy and through global investment movements such as ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) investing. The episode begins by introducing these concepts then in the first half of the episode we meet Léo Miranda, Marketing Director at La Nef, a French Ethical Bank who shares La Nef´s main priorities, and values and describes examples of how they ensure projects that they invest in are truly sustainable.

At 18 minutes 50 seconds. The second half of the episode explores the opinions of previous guests from the miniseries Donal Traynor of Community Finance Ireland, Piet Callens of Hefboom and Peru Sasia, President of FEBEA. They tell us what Green and Social washing mean to them, and how we can overcome these phenomena.

Important links:

Platform on Sustainable Finance draft report on a Social Taxonomy: https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/210712-sustainable-finance-platform-draft-reports_en

EU Taxonomy:

https://ec.europa.eu/info/business-economy-euro/banking-and-finance/sustainable-finance/eu-taxonomy-sustainable-activities_en

ESG Criteria:

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/environmental-social-and-governance-esg-criteria.asp

LISTEN HERE:

https://soundcloud.com/user-704418876/finance4good-mini-series-episode-4-tackling-green-and-social-washing-with-ethical-finance?utm_source=clipboard&utm_campaign=wtshare&utm_medium=widget&utm_content=https%253A%252F%252Fsoundcloud.com%252Fuser-704418876%252Ffinance4good-mini-series-episode-4-tackling-green-and-social-washing-with-ethical-finance

This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

Blog | Inspiration

Skoll foundation announces winners of the 2022 Skoll Award for Social Innovation

Skoll Foundation awards several organizations and individuals on their social impact ideas every year. The winners of 2022 have been announced, and in this article you will find out more about their innovative work and approach to tackling societal problems. These innovators drive stronger health systems, racial justice, climate action, civic engagement, and inclusive economic growth.

About the awards ceremony

The Skoll Foundation has announced the six winners of the 2022 Skoll Award for Social Innovation. The Awards highlight leaders and organizations that advance transformational social change around the world. Formerly known as the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, its recipients reflect the Foundation’s evolved strategy that extends beyond social entrepreneurs to also include movement builders, system orchestrators, and coalitions driving change in innovative ways.

Each of the 2022 Awardees leads an organization primed for even greater impact in their respective geographies across the United States, Brazil, India, Bangladesh, and countries throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

Common Future

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fpIVH6kgvw[/embedyt]

Common Future connects a network of community wealth-building institutions in the U.S. with restorative and reparative capital to build an economy that includes everyone. It influences decision-makers across philanthropy, finance, and government to further support those solutions that build power in communities of color across the U.S. Common Future catalyzed a radical shift of $250 million in capital from traditional wealth-holders to communities of color.

Financing Alliance for Health

[embedyt] https://youtu.be/KYRSnSmnB1Y [/embedyt]

Financing Alliance for Health is a Kenya-based, African-led partnership and technical advisory fund that works with governments, donors, and the private sector to address systemic financing challenges to scaling community health programs across sub-Saharan Africa. Financing Alliance for Health has contributed to securing more than $200 million in financing for at-scale community health systems. It has engaged governments across 12 countries, and contributed to the official recognition of more than 415,000 Community Health Workers in policy and practice.

MapBiomas

[embedyt] https://youtu.be/KYRSnSmnB1Y [/embedyt]

MapBiomas is a network of NGOs, academic institutions, and tech startups, combining local knowledge with global technology to improve the quality, speed, and applicability of land-use mapping to fight deforestation and environmental degradation and protect biodiversity and water. MapBiomas has over 100,000 unique users annually, including government agencies and Brazil’s largest banks, meatpackers, and agricultural companies. The platform has prompted 8,100 actions against deforestation in Brazil.

NDN Collective

[embedyt] https://youtu.be/IuRxNVGfRvY [/embedyt]

NDN Collective builds indigenous power by moving capital investment to, increasing capacity of, and deepening political engagement within North American Native communities, accumulating the tools for achieving land sovereignty, and leveraging culturally grounded storytelling to create transformative narratives of Indigenous leadership and innovation. NDN Collective has granted over $28 million to nearly 600 Indigenous-led groups across the Indigenous world.

Noora Health

[embedyt] https://youtu.be/HGyJdYFrzJw [/embedyt]

Noora Health improves patient outcomes and strengthens health systems by equipping families and loved ones with life-saving caregiving skills. Noora Health has trained nearly two million caregivers and patients across more than 200 hospitals and nearly 100 clinics in India and Bangladesh. Their intervention reduces cardiac surgery complications by 71 percent and newborn readmissions by 56 percent.

NOSSAS

[embedyt] https://youtu.be/AVqFPF1SA-M [/embedyt]

NOSSAS builds digital mobilization tools for real-world action to amplify civic engagement and resource a network of activism in Brazil. NOSSAS engaged over 1.2 million Brazilians in 18 cities, and successfully advocated for 25 public policy changes in 2020, across more than 200 citizen-led campaigns.

For more information on the social innovators driving transformational social change globally, explore Skoll’s 2021-2022 highlights.

This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

Educational Materials | English | Library

Unlocking Canadian Social Innovation

Please, find below the link to useful material on Social Innovation policies and practices in Canada prepared by the Centre for Social Innovation.

The Centre for Social Innovation is a non-profit social enterprise that opened its doors in 2004. We started with 14 organizations and a mission to catalyze social innovation.
Today we support over a 1000 social mission organizations, with thousands more having graduated through our networks and spaces over the years. From an initial surplus of $572, we’ve reached nearly $9M in annual revenues, with assets over $40M. We’ve grown at about 40%/year, facing and tackling every stage of organizational growth.
We are proud of the role that we’ve played in co-creating and building the field of social innovation in Canada. We straddle the space between social enterprise and social innovation, with a special skill for cultivating social innovation ecosystems. We are gritty, practical, and determined.

Link to the publication. (You may need to provide your email in order to access the publications)

Dearest friends of the European Social Economy community,

The Youth Entrepreneurship Policy Academy

We’d Love To Hear From You!