Crafting social innovators: Designing collaborative, participative, networked solutions in urban contexts

Abstract

This paper addresses the potential of design as a driver for social innovation in urban contexts in relation to an educational approach engaged with an idea of crafting social innovators. The focus is a masters studio where the idea of crafting social innovators as an approach to learning is explored in terms of learning through making, through doing - and, then, how this approach extended into the actual design propositions of the studio. In this paper, six projects are presented that explore the topics of creativity, neighbours networks, and local craft in urban contexts. These detail both the idea of crafting social innovators and the results of the work as makers of social innovation. In particular, the solutions also extended further into an idea of what we have called 'a temporary community of makers'; i.e., groups of people who share objectives, tools, and resources to collaborate for a limited time and describe a way in which design can enable urban regeneration through participating in a learning process that is based in practice. A new role for design emerges that is concerned with: looking for co-created collective meaning and action (networking); focusing on the participative process that builds a solution (participating); and centring the design activity on the active collaboration of stakeholders (collaborating). (Author abstract)