Making Futures

This study explores the effects that the weather has on people's everyday activity patterns. Temperature, rainfall, and wind speed were used as weather parameters. People's daily activity patterns were inferred, such as place visited, the time this took place, the duration of the visit, based on the GPS location traces of their mobile phones overlaid upon Yellow Pages information. Our analysis of 31,855 mobile phone users allowed us to infer that people were more likely to stay longer at eateries or food outlets, and (to a lesser degree) at retail or shopping areas when the weather is very cold or when conditions are calm (non-windy). When compared to people's regular activity patterns, certain weather conditions affected people's movements and activities noticeably at different times of the day. On cold days, people's activities were found to be more diverse especially after 10AM, showing greatest variations between 2PM and 6PM. A similar trend is observed between 10AM and midnight on rainy days, with people's activities found to be most diverse on days with heaviest rainfalls or on days when the wind speed was stronger than 4 km/h, especially between 10AM–1AM. Finally, we observed that different geographical areas of a large metropolis were impacted differently by the weather. Using data of urban infrastructure to characterize areas, we found strong correlations between weather conditions upon people's accessibility to trains. This study sheds new light on the influence of weather conditions on human behavior, in particular the choice of daily activities and how mobile phone data can be used to investigate the influence of environmental factors on urban dynamics.

This study is a historical and conceptual investigation into how the division of public and private spheres is significant in the development of Chinese patriarchy. The distinctive characteristics of the concepts, public and private, in Confucian traditions are found in the ideal of jiaguo tonggou and the rule of nei/wai (inside/outside). The political ideal of jiaguo tonggou literally means that the family and the state have the same structure. Furthermore, the principle of nei/wai (inside/outside) is a rule that rigorously classified people's everyday activities, roles, and living space according to sex. This inside-outside dichotomy appears to be analogous to the public-private opposition in Western feminist thought. With this dichotomy, the lives of women and men were separated within their families and women were consistently excluded from the public sphere in ancient China. After the Communist revolution, however, China has made remarkable strides. The revolutionary shift, however, had its own limitations insofar as the new democratic patriarchal system that emerged was a mixture of socialist ideas and a deep-rooted traditional patriarchy that it was unable to rid itself of. There is evidence that in the recent social discourse of “women return home,” emerging after the reform eras of the (1980)s, the state has sought to sought to restructure society according to the principles of a socialist market economy and send women back to the domestic sphere. Perhaps the question of the separation between public and private spheres in itself is less important than the questions of whether women are active agents of reform, whether they are empowered enough in the process, and whether they are free to make choices about their activities. However, the current controversy over “women return home” in China is still evolving, and these questions need to be explored further in the future.

The value of science partly lies on the development of useful products for humanity's needs, but basic sciences cannot be said the "protagonists" of their obtention. Human history shows that these processes occur as a result of interactions between science and technology, mathematics, and engineering, as well as ethics and aesthetics. This network of disciplinary relationships facilitating the impact of scientific knowledge on human lives is at the center of discussions in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education, and will be the focus of this article. Since the problems encountered in people's everyday activities cannot be solved with the knowledge and skill of a single discipline, there emerges an aim for general education to attain more holistic understandings required by human needs. Our conceptualization of STEM education, based on classical Greek philosophy, addresses this issue. We acknowledge that the traditional paradigm of monodisciplinary education, formed as a result of the separation of sciences over history, has been challenged in the last two decades with the rise of integrating approaches in science and technology education. STEM is consistently mentioned as a way for gaining the integrated knowledge and skills deemed important for the near future, but theoretical searches towards solving its basic problems are still ongoing and we take this as our general research problem. In this argumentative study, the philosophical approach proposed to shed light on STEM education practices is structured along two conceptual axes: integration of disciplines and inclusion of humanistic goals. Suitable foundations for our proposal are sought in Aristotelian philosophy: We use Aristotle's conception of a particular kind of human activity—poiesis, that aims to create "useful" and "aesthetic" products in order to propose an engineering "center" or "core" in the design of STEM school practices. Our model, labeled as "poietic" STEM, incorporates key elements of the nature of engineering; under the light of such a model, some aspects of what is called the "nature of STEM" are discussed. We conclude that, in an education envisaging more holistic approaches towards citizen literacy, it is necessary to connect the performance of STEM with responsible human interaction. In accordance with this requirement, our approximation to STEM centered on an epistemologically sophisticated conception of engineering makes room for fostering shared awareness in students.

Social Innovation Promoting Policy and its Implementation in the European Union

This paper uses Dorothy Smith's institutional ethnography to examine technological advances designed to improve nurses' work. The analysis interrogates how nurses' work is coordinated, in disquieting ways, in an apparent commitment to 'patient and family centred care'. The discussion is part of a larger programme of research that focuses ethnographic attention on nurses' activating technological managerial improvement strategies. This discussion paper describes suboptimal hospital experiences to show how they were organized. The institutional ethnographic analysis addresses discrepancies that arise between the different organizational standpoints. Overall the discussion focuses on how institutional ethnographers enquire into people's everyday activities to discover and make understandable, in the material world, what actually happens that shapes them. Data include observations and interviews with nurses, nurse managers, patients and families. It also includes screenshots of computer fields and other documents being used by nurses. Nursing work is methodically being oriented to interests that undermine nurses' capacity to contribute their knowledgeable activity to intervene in people's health and well-being. Nurses' work is overwhelmed with the imperative to discharge patients. This happens with an ideological construction of patient centred care that obscures what is actually happening.

Despite pervasiveness of the market forces and supplementary role of the state and in some cases, even civil society organisations, there are unmet social needs which remain unaddressed by the existing institutions. With industrial growth becoming jobless, the need for new models of social innovation is being felt all around the world to provide jobs to the youth, skills for the new economy and entrepreneurial opportunities for transforming resources and skills. The persistence of some of these unmet needs (also referred as wicked problems sometimes) or unaddressed problems for a long time shows that the existing institutional arrangements are inadequate for the purpose. Innovations are imperative. A socio-ecological system that recognizes and rewards innovation can withstand many external shocks, provided it is agile and innovates quickly to remain responsive to emergent challenges (Anderies, Janssen, & Ostrom. Ecology and society, 9(1)2004).Whether corporations will follow an open innovation approach to blend grassroots ideas and innovations with their expertise in a reciprocal, responsible and respectful manner (Gupta et al., Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity 2: 16, 2016) is still an open question. The design of appropriatemanufacturing and frugal supply chain will then become closely linked with other features of open innovation ecosystem. The debate on the role of social innovation in multi-stakeholder context in European focused on how these innovations fostered trust among different actors and influenced policy (Defourny and Nyssens. Social Enterprise Journal 4: 202–228, 2008).In this paper, we describe the market and social forces which influence the emergence of social innovations through various processes. We then look into the evolutionary pathways for social innovations (Mulgan, Innovations 1: 145–162, 2006), to avoid inertia and spur initiatives to bridge the social gap in an inclusive manner through mobilization of youth in particular. The ecosystem for social open innovations provides scope for connecting corporations and communities (Herrera, 2015; Gibson-Graham and Roelvink, Social innovation for community economies: how, 2013). Following the theory of reciprocal and responsible open innovation systems (Gupta et al., Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity 2: 16, 2016), we explore the way barriers are overcome on the way to reach the base of economic pyramid [BOEP] customer. Technological adaptability and institutional or market adaptability are explored to understand how communities get empowered to deal with corporations through an open innovation platform. The corporations need to be empowered to understand the decision heuristics followed by grassroots and community frugal innovators (Gupta, Innovations 1: 49–66, 2006). Just as communities need to be empowered to negotiate fair and just exchange relationship with corporations (Honey Bee Network, 1990–2017).Finally, we conclude with the recommendations based on the experiences of grassroots innovators that can enrich both social innovations and social enterprises following commercial as well as social business models for meeting the unmet needs of the disadvantage section of the society.

الملخص باللغة العربية يشهد العالم اليوم تغيرات وتطورات مستمرة أدت إلى تغيير في بيئة عمل المنظمات والاستراتيجيات التنموية، حيث تتمثل أهم هذه العوامل في تزايد وتيرة العولمة وثورة الاتصالات وتکنولوجيا المعلومات ومع وزيادة التحديات على المستوى المحلي والعالمي رکزت المؤسسات والمنظمات التنموية على اقتناص الفرص والاستفادة من الابتکارات في جميع المجالات الاقتصادية والصناعية والاجتماعية. وتعتبر الجمعيات الأهلية هي محور ارتکاز المجتمع، حيث تؤدي دورا رائدا في تنمية المجتمع وتلعب دورا رئيسا في التحفيز المجتمع لتقديم أفکار وحلول جديدة على مختلف المستويات الاجتماعية، هذه الحلول الجديدة تکون في صورة استراتيجيات وومارسات ومباردات ونماذ وطرق وبرام وبدائل تلبي الاحتياجات الاجتماعية بطريقة اکثر فاعلية واستدامة وحل المشکلات الاجتماعية لتحقيق التنمية. ولم تعد المداخل التقلیدیة لتحقيق التنمية المجتمعية المستدامة ، مداخل مرضیة أو متوافقة مع التغیرات الإقتصادیة والإجتماعیة المتلاحقة، مما دعا المهتمون بالتنمیة إلى البحث عن مداخل وحلول ابتکارية لتحقیق الأغراض الجدیدة – والتى فرضتها تلک المتغیرات – والتى تسعى إلى تحقیقها على مستوى البعد البيئي والاقتصادي والاجتماعي والتغلب على معوقات الابتکار الاجتماعي لکي تتمکن من تعزيز التنمية المستدامة . الکلمات المفتاحية: الابتکار الاجتماعي – التنمية المستدامة – الجمعيات الاهلية Abstract Today, the world is witnessing continuous changes and developments that have led to a change in the work environment of organizations and development strategies. The most important of these factors are the increasing pace of globalization and the revolution in communication media and information technology. With increasing challenges at the local and global level, development institutions and organizations focused on seizing opportunities and benefiting from innovations in all economic, industrial, and social fields. Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are looked upon as the society focus center, as they play a pioneering role in community development and play a major role in motivating the society to present new ideas and solutions at various social levels. These new solutions are in the form of strategies, practices, initiatives, models, methods, programs, and alternatives that meet social needs in a more effective and sustainable way and solve social problems to achieve development. The study results have also shown that the obstacles to social innovation of the local community are determined by the weak participation of society members in the events of society development, the weakness of cooperation between the concerned authorities to achieve sustainable community development and the absence of discretionary incentives to support social innovations and resist non-traditional ideas of development projects. Recommendations: Based on the results of the study, it is possible to recommend: spreading the culture of social innovation among individuals, groups and institutions of society, stimulating the use and development of methodologies and methods of social innovation and upgrading the skills of development practitioners, encouraging the possession of social innovation tools, especially social innovation laboratories, and participating in setting a national strategy for social innovation. Key words: Social innovation - Sustainable Development – NGOs

Increasing awareness in social problems and the high complexity of social challenges has boosted social innovation efforts in recent years. Social innovation refers to new and innovative solutions to social problems that create social value, involve public good, and affect the society, mostly developed by participation of stakeholders who have interests in the problem. Social innovation leads to social value created through a series of collaborative efforts of public, private, and non-governmental organizations. This chapter highlights the importance of collaboration in social innovation and examines the role of e-collaboration as a group coordination and communication mechanism in the social innovation processes. The first part of the chapter presents evidence on what social innovation is and describes how social innovation intertwines with collaboration. The second part of the chapter defines the key conceptual elements of e-collaboration and explores how e-collaboration can foster social innovation concerning each conceptual element.

Micro-multinationals from emerging markets (mEMNEs) face significant challenges in establishing social legitimacy in foreign markets due to resource constraints and limited knowledge of local societal issues. This study examines how mEMNEs leverage partnerships with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to develop dynamic capabilities for social innovation and, ultimately, to build social legitimacy in other emerging markets. Drawing on survey data from 143 Pakistani mEMNEs operating internationally, we find that NGO coupling positively influences the development of dynamic capabilities. These effects amplify when NGO salience and activism are high. Furthermore, social innovation mediates the relationship between NGO coupling, dynamic capabilities, and social legitimacy. Our findings extend dynamic capabilities theory into the social domain and contribute to understanding how resource-constrained multinationals from emerging markets can overcome legitimacy deficits through strategic stakeholder engagement. We also provide practical insights for managers on leveraging NGO partnerships and offer policy recommendations for facilitating cross-border social innovation initiatives.

In a time where governments and civil society organizations are putting ever-greater stock in social innovation as a route to transformation, understanding what characterizes social innovation with transformative potential is important. Exciting and promising ideas seem to die out as often as they take flight, and market mechanisms, which go a long way towards contributing to successful technical innovations, play an insignificant role in social innovations. The cases in this book explore the evolution of successful social innovation through time, from the ideas which catalysed social and system entrepreneurs to create new processes, platforms, projects and programs to fundamental social shifts in culture, economics, laws and policies which occurred as a result. In doing so, the authors shed light on how to recognize transformative potential in the early stage innovations we see today.

In recent decades, different social innovations – such as lifelong learning, inclusion or Education for Sustainable Development – have had a huge impact on domestic education systems. In an increasingly globalized world, innovations diffuse across national borders. At the same time, diffusion processes seem to be highly influenced by public and private actors, e.g., international organizations (IOs) or non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Both state and non-state actors use social networks and digital communication platforms, such as Twitter, as channels for the diffusion of social innovations and practices. Inclusive education, which has become the main alternative to special schools for the schooling of children with disabilities, is a widely discussed innovation in education and, hence, represents a suitable case for the study of global diffusion processes and the involved actors. Thus, drawing on social network theory (SNT), the aim of this paper is to examine the structure of the Twitter communication network forming around the social innovation of inclusive education. Empirically, we use social network analysis (SNA) to map the communication network; identify central actors; and infer assumptions about the role of different actor groups. Our results show, for instance, that especially NGOs and IOs hold central positions in the network, which enables them to exert influence on the diffusion of innovative ideas. Overall, the findings of our study indicate how the online communication tool Twitter can play a crucial role for actors who seek to influence the global diffusion of social innovations in education and effect education policies, norms and systems at the global, national and regional levels as such.

Nonstate service providers in the form of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) play an important role in the delivery of social services and the development of social work practice, in particular in fragile and conflict-affected countries. In such challenging settings, NGOs also mobilize various resources, implement novel activities or service delivery models that may induce the development of social innovation; however, such perspectives have been overlooked in the social work literature. This study outlines a framework for understanding how social innovation generates by nonstate service providers in a challenging social work context. By analyzing 15 interviews from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the study identified three interrelated key mechanisms that drive social innovation by local NGO service providers: a) transcopy, b) coactive novelty and c) knowledge construction. The processes underlying these mechanisms include transnational networking, copying and adapting, contextual modification, relationship-building, pioneering novel solutions, knowledge production and transfer. This study offers new insights into the role of nonstate service providers in the development of social innovation in a challenging social work context and has several implications for practice.

Abstract“Start today and finish yesterday” wants to emphasize the importance and the potential urgency of social innovation and its positive impacts, since there is a clear impact of social innovation on society and the welfare of individuals, and for that reason, there is a need to gain in‐depth knowledge on the topic. Social innovation can be seen as enhanced forms of action, new ways of doing things, or new social inventions, and by addressing different issues through a social innovation lens, we can expect to contribute to the well‐being and prosperity of the community, potentially leading to a more sustainable and equitable future. The present research aims to understand how the context, market, potential human performance, and competitive advantage strategies, interfere with the process of social innovation and foster the creation of social value for the community. The case study was the method used, with semi‐structured interviews that enabled the comparison of five social innovation projects. Our main conclusions show the importance of contextual factors and the strong presence of the market as important impacts on social projects. Social innovation often stems from the efforts of motivated individuals who strive to bring about change and are willing to take on risks. Evaluating and communicating the social value generated by social innovation projects is vital, but can be difficult to quantify. Finally, the credibility of these projects plays a crucial role in their recognition and competitiveness, and government support through legislation promoting value‐sharing and sustainable development can help legitimize them.

Through the launch of social innovation projects with the potential to bring about revolutionary change, this study explores the critical function of social entrepreneurship in promoting long-term societal progress. This study set out to do one main thing: shed light on how social innovation fits into entrepreneurial endeavours with a social mission in order to attain longterm social development. Quantitative research was carried out in India through an online survey to examine the proposed links. Organisations across India that are involved in social entrepreneurship and social enterprises were surveyed for this data. The link between social entrepreneurship and long-term social progress can be mediated by social innovation, according to the research. Social innovation in social entrepreneurship projects has a major impact on long-term social progress, according to the research. Government agencies, lawmakers, philanthropists, social entrepreneurs, educators with an entrepreneurial spirit, and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) can all benefit from these discoveries. Policymakers, practitioners, and academics can benefit from this research because it sheds light on the mediating elements and pathways that allow social entrepreneurship to promote transformative social change. This research is important for sustainable development efforts.

This chapter focuses on the issue of regional competitiveness from a social innovation standpoint. It argues that social innovation plays an important role in enhancing the competitiveness of regions, since social innovation initiatives constitute an ideal context for partnerships between business organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to utilize local capabilities and create value. The region will ultimately be able to offer a balanced standard of living and will remain competitive by providing for the well-being of the communities and society at large.