Sts lupo 2014

BEYOND SOCIAL INNOVATION! Design as cultures activation!

Eleonora Lupo, Politecnico di Milano eleonora.lupo@polimi.it

Beyond social innovation | Eleonora Lupo | June 12th 2014

CULTURAL BASED SOCIAL INNOVATION! Cultural based social innovation addresses an indirect social need, because is focused on cultural needs (like the one of maintaining alive and developing a heritage) that are eminently social and collective goods.

The focus on “solving societal problems or unmet need” is not primary, if not reframing it in “considering culture and cultural heritage as a first necessity social good” for a sustainable development.

A design driven cultural based social innovation is a set of design actions in which culture is together the asset and the objective of intervention (cultures active-action), also socially distributed and participated.

Culture and cultural heritage are enabling condition (cultural awareness) but also the resources and result (new cultural values and heritage) of design driven development and innovation.

Beyond social innovation | Eleonora Lupo | June 12th 2014

CULTURAL BASED SOCIAL INNOVATION FRAMEWORK FOR CASE STUDIES EVALUATION     

situated relational (connective) distributed open ended Sustainable (ownership, control, impact) Social innovation!

Cultural based social innovation!

Resources/asset!

Any, social

cultural

Objective/purpose (result, object or content of design)!

Social (“improving society in solving unmet needs”)

Cultural (i.e. new cultural values like interculturality, transgenerationality..)

Approach:(nature of) process, methodology tools (enabling conditions)!

Mainly social

Mainly cultural and social

Driver (led by)!

Many. i.e. design, dvelopment

design

Beyond social innovation | Eleonora Lupo | June 12th 2014

Beyond social innovation | Eleonora Lupo | June 12th 2014

CONTEMPORARY AUTHENTIC MILANO Design driven strategies for “activating” craft heritage in Milano!

“

aims at reproducing, socialising and transmitting the craft heritage through a sustainable recontextualisation and collective re-use of its values, incorporating its authentic qualities in the contemporary context and production

”

Beyond social innovation | Eleonora Lupo | June 12th 2014

www.contemporaryauthentic.com • CA Visual Identity • CA Living Archive • CA Craft Arenas • CA design workshop • CA products catalogue • CA craft smart itineraries &events • CA replicable methodology

CONTEMPORARY AUTHENTIC MILANO Process and outputs!

1 0n line repository 16 good practices 80 surveied masters 2 categories of craft 4

(perfomative, productive) typologies of craft (object, food, fashion, entertainment)

Beyond social innovation | Eleonora Lupo | June 12th 2014

CONTEMPORARY AUTHENTIC MILANO Process and outputs!

1 3 45

design workshop masters young designers

Beyond social innovation | Eleonora Lupo | June 12th 2014

CONTEMPORARY AUTHENTIC MILANO Process and outputs!

1 exhibition 2 craft “convivia” (performances and talks) 1 smart app 15 craft itineraries in Milano

Beyond social innovation | Eleonora Lupo | June 12th 2014

CONTEMPORARY AUTHENTIC MILANO Process and outputs!

1 9

Concept catalogues New products and business strategy development

Beyond social innovation | Eleonora Lupo | June 12th 2014

CONTEMPORARY AUTHENTIC MILANO Process and outputs!

1 6

New brand and visual identity Video-documentaries

Beyond social innovation | Eleonora Lupo | June 12th 2014

CONTEMPORARY AUTHENTIC MILANO Key points!

Contemporary Authentic!

Resources/asset!

A social shared Intangible heritage and typical craft knowledge were the asset of the exploitation and innovation initiatives

Objective/purpose (result, object or content of design)!

The main objective of the project was a innovative valorization (called active-action) of local cultural heritage, from conservation and documentation, to trasmission and innovative application of local knowledge. An indirect objective was a development of the craft production and the empowerment of the craft community

Approach:(nature of) process, methodology tools (enabling conditions)!

The project is based on complementarity, interculturality and interdisciplinarity of competences and expertises.

The master were made collaborating each other in small groups reinforcing mutual knowledge and the idea of Milanese community.

The project started with a top down strategy that met the bottom-up needs and initiatives of local masters and craftsmanship.

Time (medium/long term)!

The project has been organized in various different chronological phases addressing long term objectives (increasing the awareness and knowledge of craft potentialities) and short term results (creation of promotional events and new products, or communication tools like web site and app)

Scale (zoom-in/zoomout)!

The project worked mainly at a scale of proximity (single master) and at a general scale of the city promotion within expo 2015

Beyond social innovation | Eleonora Lupo | June 12th 2014

CONTEMPORARY AUTHENTIC MILANO Case evaluation!  situativity: Local craft skills and heritage were both asset and bonds of the project.  Relationality: Interculturality and transgenerationality. The master were made collaborating with young designers and with other masters in a network of opportunities at very different stages: from selfpromotions (events, communication, digital app) to product innovation  Openess: The brand and quality certification system is a platform that welcomed many different process and outputs, within the frame of authenticity and contemporariness.  Sustainability factors:!

- Ownership: The craft masters have been involved in the process of documentation of their own knowledge, with photo-stock taking techniques; - Control: The masters have been mentoring the creative process of new products development, in the frame of authenticity and respect for their skill - Impact: The have beneficiated of the brand promotional events, and of the collaborating platform created by the project.

Beyond social innovation | Eleonora Lupo | June 12th 2014

DESIGNING CONNECTED PLACES International Summer School on Design for local development!

“

even if directly addressing local development process, implicitly uses local cultural resources and heritage in a situated and openended process that achieve a sustainable inter-cultural and inter-generational community engagement

”

Beyond social innovation | Eleonora Lupo | June 12th 2014

6 local topics: • health and well-being, • food and new food networks, • urban mobility, • security and quality of life in the city, • new production systems • forms of representation of the region and its communities.

DESIGNING CONNECTED PLACES Process and outputs!

40 researchers 20 experts Concepts generation

Meta-design May 2008

January 2008

July 2008

Meta-design leaders Interlocution with local stakeholders Interlocution with local experts Interloction with academic experts

Elaboration of the design brief

Case study collecting Elaboration of the dossier

Wks tutoring

Local experts/ stakeholders Definition of local needs

Contribution to the design brief

Result evaluation Academic experts Contribution to the dossier

Project leaders (6 leaders) Contribution to the design brief

Wks direction Students Wks participation

Beyond social innovation | Eleonora Lupo | June 12th 2014

DESIGNING CONNECTED PLACES Process and outputs!

6 Projcet leaders 6 Design briefs Concepts generation

Meta-design May 2008

January 2008

July 2008

Meta-design leaders Interlocution with local stakeholders Interlocution with local experts Interloction with academic experts

Elaboration of the design brief

Case study collecting Elaboration of the dossier

Wks tutoring

Local experts/ stakeholders Definition of local needs

Contribution to the design brief

Result evaluation Academic experts Contribution to the dossier

Project leaders Contribution to the design brief

Wks direction Students Wks participation

Beyond social innovation | Eleonora Lupo | June 12th 2014

DESIGNING CONNECTED PLACES Process and outputs! dossiers 6 Thematic with more than 200 cases and dozens of scenarios Concepts generation

Meta-design May 2008

January 2008

July 2008

Meta-design leaders Interlocution with local stakeholders Interlocution with local experts Interloction with academic experts

Elaboration of the design brief

Case study collecting Elaboration of the dossier

Wks tutoring

Local experts/ stakeholders Definition of local needs

Contribution to the design brief

Result evaluation Academic experts Contribution to the dossier

Project leaders Contribution to the design brief

Wks direction Students Wks participation

Beyond social innovation | Eleonora Lupo | June 12th 2014

DESIGNING CONNECTED PLACES Process and outputs!

15 days of workshop 200 students 32 concepts Concepts generation

Meta-design May 2008

January 2008

July 2008

Meta-design leaders Interlocution with local stakeholders Interlocution with local experts Interloction with academic experts

Elaboration of the design brief

Case study collecting Elaboration of the dossier

Wks tutoring

Local experts/ stakeholders Definition of local needs

Contribution to the design brief

Result evaluation Academic experts Contribution to the dossier

Project leaders Contribution to the design brief

Wks direction Students Wks participation

Beyond social innovation | Eleonora Lupo | June 12th 2014

DESIGNING CONNECTED PLACES Key points!

Designing Connected places!

Resources/asset!

The local resources of the Piedmont territory were the asset on which the development and innovation process is based: they include mainly the distributed knowledge capital (mobility, wellbeing) but also cultural resources like food, agriculture and culinary culture, public spaces.

Objective/purpose (result, object or content of design)!

Local development and local society empowerment in solving social problems: health and wellbeing, security of public spaces, mobility and quality of life, food chain and distribution.

Approach:(nature of) process, methodology tools (enabling conditions)!

The process has been eminently social, shared, distributed and participated by many different actors: the summer schools has been articulated as a devices for strategic conversations among stakeholders and exerts of the territory (owner of local and proximity values) and metadesign researchers, project leaders and young designers (owner of multicultural and multiple visions, or distance values).

Visualizing the existing opportunities and visioning new possibilities has been the agreed methodology used.

The project mixes top-down approach (policies, visioning strategies) with bottom-up creativity

Time (medium/long term)!

The project mixes long term strategies (territorial demands analysis and interpretation with the local community) with medium/short term actions, from concept development to dissemination for awareness raising and people engagement.

Scale (zoom-in/zoomout)!

The project works both at a scale of proximity and at a general scale

Beyond social innovation | Eleonora Lupo | June 12th 2014

DESIGNING CONNECTED PLACES Case evaluation  situativity: Local resources and pattern were both asset and bonds of the project.  Relationality: Interculturality A “Learning from diverse cultures” approach has been the most outstanding strategy to address innovatively local problems, in order to overcome the biggest barrier to innovation (Murray et al. 2010, p.148), learning from other sectors and other places. Culturally mixed teams adopted ideas from diverse sources.  Openess: The metadesign phase let to the final international project leaders and designers to negotiate the solutions and the concepts. The concept themselves were more plot to be discussed and verified with the local stakeholders than real finished prototypes.

The summer school acted as a platform, a context for innovation.

Beyond social innovation | Eleonora Lupo | June 12th 2014

 Sustainability factors:!

- Ownership: The local community (i.e. patients for well being, workers for mobility) and stakeholders were directly involved as experts in the project: their experience has been respected and taken in account; - Control: They had the possibility to decide and negotiate effective solutions - Impact: They have been the beneficiary of the concepts developed and result produced.

CONCLUSIONS! Design culture vs design thinking (Deserti, Rizzo, 2014) Cultural based innovation is not substitutive of social innovation, but complementary and synergic to it. This innovation is social because is focusing on the human individual or communitarian dimension of culture and heritage with an aesthetics quality of action (Lupo 2011b, Colombi, Lupo, 2014) that addresses soft values, like the ones that are cultural and humanities driven (from valorization, to appropriation to transmission and innovation).

Beyond social innovation | Eleonora Lupo | June 12th 2014