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Department of Social Sciences
Studierende sitzt am Arbeitsplatz und schaut auf den Laptop. © Aliona Kardash​/​TU Dortmund
The second Hot Topic Workshop of the Platform for Social Innovation and Social Enterprises focuses on the concept of social innovation ecosystems

The implications of social innovation ecosystems for research and practice

Screenshot of a presentation “Ecosystems of Social Innovation” Please provide a copyright notice
A large number of actors are involved in the emergence, promotion, dissemination and perpetuation of social innovations. The BMBF project “Platform for Social Innovations and Social Enterprises” (SIGU platform) aims to inform, connect and empower this variety of actors to strengthen the social innovation ecosystem. As part of the biannual Hot Topic Workshops, organised by sfs researchers, interested researchers and practitioners examined the topic of social innovation ecosystems in more detail on 11th November.

In order to better analyse and visualise the conditions for the success of social innovations, the concept of social innovation ecosystems has become established in social innovation research in recent years. However, strengthening local, regional or national ecosystems is also often the focus in enhancing social innovations. In her presentation of the SIGU platform to international participants, Marthe Zirngiebl (sfs) emphasised that the SIGU-platform aims to strengthen actors from all areas in order to promote the social innovation ecosystem. To shed light on both the conceptual and practical perspectives of the ecosystem approach two international experts presented their research: PD Dr. Christoph Kaletka (sfs) provided insights into the concept of social innovation ecosystems, differentiated it from the actor- and institution-based approach of innovation systems and finally presented a research heuristic that he co-developed. Prof Carolina Andion (Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina, Brazil) then presented the Social Innovation Observatory of the Brazilian city of Florianópolis, of which she is also the director. Social innovators of the region can map their initiatives on the observatory of which some are scientifically monitored in long-term studies. In the subsequent discussion, Daniel Krüger (sfs) and Marthe Zirngiebl (sfs) asked the participants how the SIGU-platform’s community of researchers could further develop the ecosystem approach and what they could learn from the experiences of the Social Innovation Observatory in this process.

Further information: https://sigu-plattform.de/wissenschaft/hot-topic-workshops/

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