Ezio Manzini
DESIS Network
Carla Cipolla
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil / DESIS Network
Adam Thorpe
University of the Arts London, UK, University of the Arts London, UK / DESIS Network
DESIS Network
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Published in: ServDes.2014 Service Future; Proceedings of the fourth Service Design and Service Innovation Conference; Lancaster University; United Kingdom; 9-11 April 2014
Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings 99:61, p. 484-485
Published: 2014-06-25
ISBN: 978-91-7519-280-2
ISSN: 1650-3686 (print), 1650-3740 (online)
Social innovation is a dynamic phenomenon; with solutions emerging and moving from the
margins of society to the mainstream. The word ‘‘social’’ in “social innovation” refers both to the
means and the end. As a means; it indicates that these innovations are based on the capabilities of
the people who activate and benefit from the innovation; and on unexpected interactions and
partnerships between citizens; institutions; businesses; and governments. As an end; it indicates that
the social effort is targeted to solve commonly recognized problems that existing businesses and
technological solutions have failed to address. This implies that design discipline (and service
design) can have an important role in identifying these small; local social inventions and their
working prototypes; and make them spread to address economic; social and environmental
challenges.
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Research activities on service design for social innovation - particularly undertaken in DESIS
Network - have identified a particular kind of service configurations known as collaborative
services: services where the final users are actively involved and assume the role of service codesigners
and co-producers. Recognition of the collaborative service model led to the coining of
another one: relational services; in which participants need not only to be operationally active and
collaborative; but also well inclined and willing to relate with others in an intensive personal
manner.
