Social Innovation through Design. A Model for Design Education

Social innovation involves the convergence of human involvement and contemporary society, positioning design practice as a co-creative trajectory towards implementing significant and meaningful change. The social innovation concept has expanded the scope of design’s role in society by means of fostering transparency and community involvement to produce contributions extending beyond the individual designer to impact culture and society. This humanistic perspective leads to questions of how design education should adapt and change to enhance the implications of socially conscious design and the designer’s position as social leader. Through a discussion of participatory and co-creative design, this paper attempts to identify how design education can respond to social needs through innovative solutions for social change. This paper reviews the experiential processes of design activities through a series of case-studies to evaluate the impact of introducing the social innovation agenda as part of the design curriculum through collaborative and collective projects.