Workshop
Re-narrating Social Innovation
TBA, 22 October, 09:00-11:00Workshop
Re-narrating Social Innovation: Co-Creating Imaginaries, Liminal Communities, and Shared Futures
Workshop Overview
This workshop invites participants to examine how social innovation is narrated, by whom, through which media forms, and with what consequences for the construction of shared futures. While the literature on social innovation has often analyzed narratives as representations of social change or as drivers of transformation, less attention has been paid to their material and communicative form: the institutional document, the social media post, the video, the public event, the scientific article, the community performance, the image, the name of a project. The workshop starts from the assumption that narratives are not neutral containers of content. They organize power relations, define legitimate speakers, stabilize or contest social imaginaries, and decide which forms of knowledge, vulnerability and participation become visible.
Target Audience
Researchers, public administrators, third sector practitioners, communication professionals, activists, and people involved in community-based initiatives. The workshop is particularly relevant for those working on social innovation, participatory governance, community development, social communication, public engagement, and transformative research.
Mini Agenda
- Intro - Conceptual briefing: Present the literature gap and frame social innovation as a contested narrative field [15 minutes]
- Phase 1 – Archaeology of communicative traces: Identify the narrative specificities of public administration, research and civil society/Third Sector [20 minutes]
- Phase 2 – Rotating brainstorming: Analyze identities, objects and channels, with attention to inclusion/exclusion of publics [35 minutes]
- Phase 3 – Narrative co-creation through naming: Rename a social innovation project based on process, conflict, relationships, learning and future [35 minutes]
- Conclusion – Synthesis and take-away: Co-creation of 5-7 principles for transformative social innovation narratives [15 minutes].
Facilitators
