Social Innovation Design

2026/2027

Учебный год

ENG

Обучение ведется на английском языке

3

Кредиты

Кто читает:

Департамент социологии

Статус:

Курс обязательный

Когда читается:

1-й курс, 4 модуль

Course Syllabus

Abstract

The course introduces students to key concepts, tools and practices in social innovation design. Emphasis is placed on the application of design thinking and human-centered approaches to solving socially relevant problems. Students learn techniques for identifying social needs, designing and prototyping solutions, and evaluating their impact. The course is based on project work and interdisciplinary interaction, which allows participants not only to master theoretical models, but also to apply them in practice in cooperation with real social partners.

Learning Objectives

• Build a rigorous conceptual understanding of social innovation, its historical development, typologies, actors, and lifecycle.
• Develop students’ ability to select context-appropriate approaches and tools for designing social innovation.
• Build competence in stakeholder engagement, co-creation, Human-Centered Design, and responsible research and innovation.
• Enable students to prototype, test, and refine social solutions rapidly, economically, and ethically.
• Develop implementation, diffusion, replication, and scaling strategies that address organizational and systemic barriers.
• Build students’ capacity to map and mobilize institutional, financial, and university-based support infrastructure.
• Strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration, entrepreneurial agency, ethical judgment, and professional communication.

Expected Learning Outcomes

• Сan distinguish social innovation from technological, commercial, organizational, and policy innovation.
• Сan evaluate and select pull, push, systems, logical-framework, resilience-based, evidence-based, and network approaches.
• Сan apply stakeholder analysis, co-creation, Human-Centered Design, personas, journey maps, and open innovation tools.
• Сan formulate and ethically test a social innovation prototype using Design Thinking, Lean Impact, and Social Lab approaches.
• Сan identify assumptions, testing metrics, risks, and safeguards during prototyping and experimentation.
• Сan design implementation and change-management plans using ADKAR and Kotter’s eight-step model.
• Сan assess scaling readiness and diffusion potential using the SCALERS framework and related approaches.
• Сan map relevant support infrastructure, funding instruments, accelerators, impact investors, and university resources.
• Can critically assess ethical, compliance, inclusion, accessibility, and human-dignity implications throughout the design process.

Course Contents

• Topic 1. Introduction to Social Innovation: Concepts, History, and Typology
• Topic 2. Approaches to Designing Social Innovation
• Topic 3. Stakeholder Approach and Co-Creation in Social Innovation Design
• Topic 4. Prototyping and Testing Social Innovations
• Topic 5. Implementation and Diffusion of Social Innovations
• Topic 6. Support Infrastructure for Social Innovations

Assessment Elements

• Case-Based Applied Tasks
  Students complete short individual or team-based assignments during seminars. Tasks may include classification of social innovations, comparison of pull and push approaches, stakeholder mapping, prototype critique, journey mapping, SCALERS analysis, or infrastructure mapping. The average score across assessed tasks forms this component.
• Social Innovation Design Portfolio
  The portfolio presents the progressive development of a social innovation concept. It may be completed individually or in a team, but individual contributions must be documented. Recommended length: 5,000–7,000 words excluding appendices and visual materials.
• Final Examination / Project Defense
  The final assessment consists of a structured presentation and oral defense of the portfolio or, where required by the programme, a written case-based examination covering the full course.

Interim Assessment

• 2026/2027 4th module
  0.25 * Case-Based Applied Tasks + 0.45 * Social Innovation Design Portfolio + 0.3 * Final Examination / Project Defense

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• The international handbook on social innovation : collective action, social learning and transdisciplinary research, , 2013

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Westley, F., McGowan, K., & Tjörnbo, O. (2017). The Evolution of Social Innovation : Building Resilience Through Transitions. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1663215

Authors

• KUZINER EVGENIIA NIKOLAEVNA