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Social Innovation or Transformative Change ?
Budd L Hall, U of Victoria and Cristina Esgrigas GUNi, International Association of Universities
Montreal May 7 and 8, 2015
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What I will talk aboutWhat I will talk about
Introduction and acknowledgements
Social innovation: a disquieting conversation
Knowledge, Engagement and Higher Education Contributing to Social Change- The World Report on Higher Education
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Social InnovationSocial Innovation
Silent on power imbalances, organizing and political action, the dominance of colonized knowledge systems
Calls for co-optation rather than collaboration, ‘bigger is better, solving problems not building community capacity to find solutions and a serial avoidance of politics
But 80 people will have the same amount of wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion people
Piketty on Inequality and Capitalism
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If higher education takes itsIf higher education takes its
role seriously as an instrument of social responsibility and knowledge democracy, of studying the deep obstacles to global well being and of understanding the processes of challenging injustice, environmental pillage and greed, then we need to release the energies of transformative change.
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• GUNi is an international network supported by UNESCO, the United Nations University (UNU) and the Association of Catalan Public Universities (ACUP).
• The Report is a collective work. » 73 authors from 34 countries of the world regions have
contributed to this edition.
• Dr. Rajesh Tandon and Dr. Budd Hall have been the guest editors.
• Is a product of three years research, consultations, academic seminars and an international conference in 2013.
5 Higher Education in the World Report Knowledge, Engagement and Higher Education:
Contributing to Social Change
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Higher Education in the World 5 aims to:
a) Analyze the concept of community university engagement and social responsibility.
b) Provide a regional and thematic map about how HEIs are engaged with society.
c) Identify how the social actors are involved in the engagement practices, including leadership, participation and decision making process.
d) Propose steps for advancing the contribution of CUE.
e) Offer a toolbox for higher education practitioners through examples of good practices and resources to move forward.
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Community–University Engagement Community–University Engagement
Community-University engagement (CUE) is
multidimensional umbrella term that describes the collaboration
between the university and a community for the mutual
beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources.
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• A new conception of the relationship with communities as equal partners.
• A new conception of what is and isn't knowledge, given equal value to the different kinds and sources of knowledge.
• That knowledge societies are about apply knowledge for sustainable and inclusive development.
• That knowledge should be measured through its capacity to intervene in reality.
• New perceptions of what societies could be.
• New perceptions on what education should mean.
EngagementEngagement
The engaged practices have several common characteristics
Propósito de GUNi
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“The main contribution of civic
engagement in terms of social
responsibility is the idea of serving
society at large; dealing with real
problems of common people and communities, under
a vision of ethics and values.”
Social responsibility of HE
• The knowledge economy versus a knowledge democracy.
• The pressure for profitability versus the social value of knowledge.
• Social and sustainable relevance versus competition and competitiveness.
• Deep and complex understanding of reality.
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Main recommendations and agenda for action
Transformative knowledge to drive social change. Recognizing the existence of multiple epistemologies and ways of knowing
from a mono-culture of scientific knowledge to an ecology of knowledge;
from rational knowledge to integral human knowledge;
from descriptive knowledge to knowledge for intervention;
from partial knowledge to a holistic and complex knowledge;
from an isolated creation of knowledge to a social co-creation of knowledge;
from a static use of knowledge to a dynamic and creative knowledge.
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Elements of a vision
Community-university engagement informs the education process, linking engagement within the teaching and research dimensions.
HE have to go beyond educating professionals to educating citizens with ethical awareness and civic commitment that exchange value with society through a professional activity.
It implies new ways of educating that demands deeper changes
New approaches for learning based on participatory and problem-oriented methods.
Disciplinary studies should make connections with real world and real-time issues.
New, critical and reflexive learning systems need also to be incorporated.
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Elements of a vision
Partnerships: establishing community-university dialogue
Stronger relationships with civic associations and with social movements to co-create knowledge.
New approaches to knowledge mobilization and creation are needed between institutions and their communities related to real problems.
Greater coordination between governments, civil society, educative institutions, enterprises and the private sector for social transformation.
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In looking to the future we are
calling for a world were a new set of
partnership principles are the rule rather than the exception.
Community organisations are calling for new forms of partnership
• Based on principles of respect and recognition of the differences of knowledge cultures in communities and universities.
• Based on long-term.
• The diverse sources of leadership, roles in knowledge production and organizing systems of the projects are accepted.
• Participatory action research and Science Shop experiences worldwide are two ways to move forward.
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There are a range of actions that would contribute to a more engaged knowledge system:
Elements of a vision
• Making new knowledge available on an open-access basis while improving to its application.
• Sustaining discussions amongst diverse knowledge sources in relation to the grand challenges of our communities.
• Generating knowledge strategies for informing political decision-making that affect larch groups of populations local or global.
• Creating cosmopolitan centres of culture, building bridges and connecting different cultures and sources of knowledge.
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Elements of a vision
HEIs role in Addressing Major Global Issues
The diverse levels of communities are interdependent and no real solutions will be sustainably reached if we don’t work on all them simultaneously.
To link research agendas to collective challenges and the global development agenda, making evident connections between academic activity and societal needs.
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Elements of a vision
New policies: higher education and the state
• Professional careers in HEIs• Policy climate within the academic world about how to recognize
excellence in CBR and engaged scholarship is advancing. • Governmental policies
• Increasing interest in these collaborative co-construction research projects worldwide.
The role of networks • Numerous national, regional and global networks have emerged with
an overall objective of building the movement of CUE.
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We are excited about the prospects of deepening the contributions of transformative
knowledge in the world today.
We are fully aware of the potential of higher education to make sustained and meaningful
contributions towards identifying and catalyzing a social change agenda for the
future of all humanity.
Thank you
UNESCO Chair in Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education
United NationsEducational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization
