England is not a free people till the poor that have no land have a free allowance to dig and labour the commons, and so live as comfortably as the landlords that live in their enclosures.

Holding power to account, the environment, religious fundamentalism, collaborative innovation and social cohesion might sound like the specific concerns in today's world. However as exposed by Charles Leadbeater (@wethink) the social challenges that we are currently facing draw a close parallel with those that were present in mid 17th century England. In this essay Leadbeater reflects on the happenings and events from the second half of the recently past decade as the beginning of a new economic model for future societies. Rather than a dramatic [and possibly unfeasible] search for a completely new model, Leadbeater proposes a re-organisation of the capitalist model, a social capitalism.

With a preface written by Geoff Mulgan from the Young Foundation, Digging For The Future is a very compelling and reflective attempt to look at our society and the challenges ahead with renewed eyes but applying the learnings from the past.

December 9, 2009

Generating Social Innovation: Design Methods

Click here to download:

generatingsocialinnovationtoolstechniquesandmethods-090722054501-phpapp02.pptx (7.78 MB)

(download)

This is a short presentation by Geoff Mulgan, economist Robin Murray and Julie Caulier-Grice from The Young Foundation for the Social Innovation Exchange' Festival of Ideas in Lisbon this year.

This process of Social Innovation is discussed from different perspectives putting special attention to the design methods as a means to achieve innovation in the social sector.

August 28, 2009

Thoughts on Social Innovation by Geoff Mulgan

Click here to download:

Geoff Mulgan - Social Innovation Summary Mar06.pdf (28 KB)

(download)

via dontstop01.com

This extract of the Young Foundation's summary posits a very interesting approach to social innovation. In a very interesting way Mulgan links the innovation cycle to Schopenhauer's 3 stages model (ridiculed/opposed/self-evident). However in this case it seems to have started backwards. From the beginning the concept of social innovation has become self-evident and the supposed opposition has only generated attention and genuine interest across many different industries. This has yielded to stimulating collaborations and engaging projects between the bees (individuals) and the trees (organisations).
More on the Young Foundation's postulate here.

July 31, 2009

The Young Foundation

Recently I came across a really interesting institution here in the UK called The Young Foundation, a think tank for social innovation based in East London directed by Geoff Mulgan (author of Connexity and Good and Bad Power). Their work programme covers different areas such as social venture funds, collaborative projects with the community, research and social innovation exchanges.

The YF was formed in 2005 as a result of the merge of the Institute of Community Studies and the Mutual Aid Centre, creations of Michael Young. Since then they have committed to put in practise real innovative methods to both the organisation and the projects they carry out.

Worth to have a look at it, more soon.