Social Innovation and Impact Affinity Group Meeting

Session Submission Type: Meeting

Abstract

What is social innovation and impact?
Social innovation is hailed as a means to create lasting social change. It refers to the process of developing and implementing new ideas, resources, strategies, and solutions to address social ills and environmental issues affecting people. It therefore entails generating impact to tackle issues such as poverty, inequality, environmental degradation, access to healthcare and community development. While beneficial, there can be downsides, and unintended consequences when seeking to innovate and have impact.
The ISTR social innovation group is brand new! It was formalized in 2024 to increase focus on social innovation and impact in practice and in academia. We are starting this group to place a special emphasis on social innovation and impact at a time when the global sustainability challenges are persistent. We need to foster debate and discussion around these critical areas.
Focus Areas:
• Innovation in resourcing and fulfilling mission
• Opportunities and challenges for social innovation and impact measurement (including technology, tools, and knowledge)
• Philosophy, methods, and tools in social innovation and impact measurement
• The “dark side” and unintended consequences of social innovation and impact
• Bridging the gap between practice and academia
Join us in Antwerp to share ideas about how we might work together. Possible ideas include: 1) sharing and collaboration on research, 2) finding community and building networking solutions, 3) sharing knowledge with the broader ISTR community. The specific activities of the affinity group to achieve these are not meant to be labour intensive, but could include:

• generate conversations at ISTR international and regional conferences within the groups (and online/social media if possible).
• post, or encourage others, to post relevant news in the affinity group portal.
• organize one online event every year (this could be a presentation, book club, training, or meeting)
• Organise collaborative international comparative research projects
• Sharing news and information with the ISTR Secretariat – be our eyes and ears on the ground on this topic and the mood of our members!
We look forward to meeting you in Antwerp and exploring how we might work together further.

Sub Unit

• Special Sessions

Moderators

• Keratiloe Mogotsi, Chatham University

• Craig Furneaux, Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies, Queensland University of Technology