ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 15 March 2019 doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2019.00010
Open to All: Dementia, Creativity, and Open Ecosystem Innovation Timothy J. Senior* Digital Cultures Research Centre, University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom
Edited by: Andrzej Klimczuk, Independent Researcher, Warsaw, Poland Reviewed by: Alessandro Tonacci, Institute of Clinical Physiology (IFC), Italy Alessandro Martorana, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy *Correspondence: Timothy J. Senior timothy.joseph.senior@gmail.com Specialty section: This article was submitted to Medical Sociology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Sociology Received: 28 November 2018 Accepted: 04 February 2019 Published: 15 March 2019 Citation: Senior TJ (2019) Open to All: Dementia, Creativity, and Open Ecosystem Innovation. Front. Sociol. 4:10. doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2019.00010
Frontiers in Sociology | www.frontiersin.org
In the health arena, open innovation approaches strive to address real-world complexity through driving multi-stakeholder collaborative activities that can better identify and respond to complex health needs. This paper will argue for the value of an open ecosystem innovation approach, one that explores the full implications of what it means to be “open” in a health innovation context. To these ends, the paper will outline the origins of open innovation in the health arena, suggesting that it has become an important site for pushing the limits of open methods and challenging mainstream conceptions of the targets of health innovation. Five guiding principles for open ecosystem innovation will then be proposed, drawing on learning from the Knowledge Exchange Hubs for the Creative Economy funded by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council. These principles point to a configuration of open activities that are maximally sensitive to (1) knowledge diversity in innovation work; (2) the consequences of adopting an open-orientation across all stages of innovation programming; (3) the value of deepening and broadening the targets of innovation activity; (4) the role of mediation in supporting cross-sector partnerships; and, (5) the importance of operating in an adaptive and sustainable manner in the long-term. A follow-on project from the AHRC Hubs—Dementia Connect—sought to apply this learning to an important health focus: dementia and the role played by creative participation in delivering important health outcomes. Through Dementia Connect, the applicability of open ecosystem innovation thinking was assessed, revealing the conditions under which it might deliver innovation-led improvements to the quality of life for those living with a dementia diagnosis. A detailed blueprint for conducting open ecosystem innovation is then proposed in full—a new and comprehensive response to the complex reality of living with a dementia diagnosis today. Keywords: open innovation, collaboration, hubs, ecosystems, health, dementia, creativity
1. INTRODUCTION TO OPEN INNOVATION IN HEALTH In the health arena, open innovation approaches strive to address real-world complexity through driving multi-stakeholder collaborative activities that can better identify and respond to complex health needs. The development of open approaches is still very much an ongoing process, with their full potential in the health arena not yet fully realised. The subject of this paper—a new model of open ecosystem innovation for the dementia and creativity arena—is one proposal for advancing that development.
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March 2019 | Volume 4 | Article 10
