ABCof SoCIAL INNoVATIoN

forum for SoCIAL INNoVATIoN ANd SoCIAL ENTrEprENEurShIp

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Sweden and the world need social innovations and social entrepreneurs. Not just because we are fighting great in-

justices and challenges in the world, but also because social innovations create new business opportunities and develop-ment. If we can make money by saving the planet, then we have a win-win situation for all involved. We, and many along with us, are convinced that this is the case.

At the moment Sweden needs specific measures for how to build a highway for promoting and improving the conditions for social innovation. We need initiatives such as new forms of enterprises, incubators and social investment funds and we need a new national political agenda that can focus on developing Swedish social innovations.

This is the first in a series of pocket-sized booklets for anyone who wants to know more about social innovation. We have gathered some of the most influential voices within this area, such as Geoff Mulgan from the British think tank Young Foun-dation and Kevin Jones of the American social investment fund Socap. We talk about what social innovation really is, why it is so important and share some examples of social innovations such as Peepoople, Barista and Living Lab.

At www.socialinnovation.se you will find more information as well as downloading this booklet and other publications.Be well!

INTro by Erika Augustinsson

4 What is social innovation? 8 Example Peepoople 10 Example Barista 12 Example Living Lab Quarters 14 Why is social innova-tion important? 16 Social innovation within the EU and the world 18 Kevin Jones invests in social innovations 20 Researching social innovations 22 The Forum: A lab for social innovation 24 Geoff Mulgan leads the way

”If we can earn money by saving the world, then that is a win-win-situation for all involved.”

A hIGhWAY for SoCIAL INNoVATIoN

ABC of Social InnovationJuly 2011

publisher: Forum for Social

Innovation and

Social Entrepreneurship

Editor: Erika Augustinsson

Translation: Rebecca Allen

Lamptey

design: You Us and Them

Erika Augustinsson is the editor of ABC of social innovation. She is employed by the Forum For Social Innovation and Social Entrepre-neurship in Sweden. She is also the author of the book entitled: Earn-ing money and saving the world (Tjäna pengar och rädda världen).

Erika Augustinsson

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WhAT IS SoCIAL INNoVATIoN?

Libraries, fire brigades, general/female voting rights, child health care centres, kindergarten, distance learning, Si-

tuation Stockholm/The Big Issue, Fair Trade-labelling, Micro-credit loans, Wikipedia, free Wi-Fi and Facebook.

These are all new and old social innovations. Ideas, proces-ses and initiatives which are radically changing our society.

Today more and more people agree that we need social innovations in order for our community to continue to de-velop, gain increment and to see our common features be modernized in line with the changing and renewing time we live in.

Concepts such as social innovation and social entrepre-neurship are usually explained as initiatives aimed at im-proving what is missing, or not functioning, within our social structure. This includes innovative ideas and methods of how to solve social problems in new ways.

It will be increasingly important to raise and promote these innovative solutions in a society characterized by an ex-hausted public economy, demographic changes, health chal-lenges, migration and climate change.

Social innovation can take place in various sectors of so-ciety. They can be promoted through political processes and decisions, in academia or by needs that arise on the market. But more often, successful social innovations occur within a cross-sector context, where different stakeholders from different sectors of society work together towards common goals.

Social innovation occurs mainly as three types:

As grassroots initiatives, which in new ways meets social needs that are not met by the market or by the public sector. One example is the emergence of street news-papers for the homeless, such as Situation Stockholm and Aluma.

As social innovations, where boundaries between diffe-rent sectors of society become blurred and where the innovation targets the entire community. One example is the emergence of different microcredit initiatives.

As system-changing social innovations, aiming at chang-ing values, cultures, strategies and politics. One example of this is the efforts to stop climate change.

Many social innovations are created by social entrepre-neurs. A social entrepreneur is usually a person trying to solve social problems in a new way, often by combining entrepreneurial logic with a socially beneficial goal. Social entrepreneurs can operate their business in various forms. It can be in the form of a company, financial association, an organization or in a combination of different organiza-tional forms. Sometimes the business operates as a social enterprise.

“more often success-ful social innovations occur within a cross-sector context, where different stakeholders from different sec-tors of society work together towards com-mon goals”.

WhAT by Erika Augustinsson

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A social business can be recognized by:

reinvesting it´s profit into it´s own or similar business

part of the turnover comes from business

has an innovative idea for solving a challenge within the community or an idea which solves a community chal-lenge in a new way and with new methods.

One example of a well-known social entrepreneur is Muhammad Yunus, the founder of micro financing and the social innovation Grameen Bank. Other well-known social entrepreneurs in Sweden are Dem Collective, God El, Volontärbyrån, Ung Omsorg, Saltå kvarn, Barista and Peepoople.

Social entrepreneurs are hybrids, and can-not be organized into a specific compart-ment or category. They move across borders in the triangle we often use to describe stakeholders within so-ciety.

Right now there are ventures all over the world promo-ting social innovations in va-rious ways. Partly through policy-making and political action, where several countries are now presenting strategies and plans of action for how to promote social innovation, and partly by increasing access to capital. Yet it is not possible to apply the same model as we have done before, support structures need to be rebuilt, in new ways.

This is done by creating specific legal frameworks for social entrepreneurs who want to run their enterprise in the kind of company that better suits their hybrid enterprise.

CIC’s, Community Interest Company in the UK, is a relatively new legal condition speci-fically developed for ”businesses engaged in trade with a social purpose.”

The US has developed a certification cal-led B Corps. They use business and entre-preneurship to solve social and ecological challenges, and meet certain criteria, such as transparency and accountability. The UK is also developing a social stock exchange, an exchange that will be a unifying platform for what is known as social enterprises.

Other emerging platforms, where investors and financially strong players can find and connect with social entrepre-neurs, are different kinds of social investment funds. This is what is known as social investments or social impact In-vestments.

Publicsector

Non-pro�tsector

Businesssector

read more at: www.socialinnovation.se

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Every minute four children die due to poor hy-giene. more than two billion people are lacking access to sanitary toilets. Anders Wilhelmson, architect and professor at the Art College of Sweden, decided to look for a small solution to a huge problem.

According to WHO, World Health Organisation, 2.6 billion people lack toilets. Dysentery, cholera and other diseases harvest lives, mainly from the world’s poorest people and in the growing slums of big cities.

When architecture professor Anders Wilhelmson visited some of the world’s megacities, he realized the magnitude of the problem and decided to do something about it. The idea of ”the peepoo-bag” - a portable, degradable and dispo-sable toilet was born. The small, greenish white rustling bag consists of a pair of thin plastic layers. It can be slipped over a bucket or a potty. Then it is sealed with a knot and is ready to be buried.

”The bag is transformed into biomass, and finally carbon di-oxide. It can be used as fertilizer! The final product is not just harmless, but also valuable for crops ”, says Anders Wil-helmsson.

In 2006 the company Peepoople was founded and the Peepoo-bag was patented in 2008, at the same time as the last big tests were conducted in a slum area outside Nairobi, Kenya. ”Then we pushed the button and started looking for financing, with the goal of building a Swedish industrial enterprise that would also do good for society. Our mission is to provide 150 million people a day access to our toilet”, says Anders.

He identifies himself undoubtedly as a social entrepreneur. The driving force is to do something about the big toilet problem in the world - but he also hopes that the bag will be the foundation of a profitable company. It is hoped that the bag will not only solve health problems, but also gene-rate new enterprises.

Since 2008 things have moved at an incredible pace. Anders Wilhelmsson has been appointed as an Ashoka Fellow, a global organisation that supports social entrepre-neurs. Vinnova gave Peepoople 7.4 million to develop its production line and they are going to form a Peepoople Foundation. In the fall of 2010 the first major production facility in Kenya and Bangladesh were launched.

The Dutch Postcode Lottery has donated 1.6 million euro to support Peepoople´s first deployment project in Kibera, a slum in Nairobi that is one of Africa’s largest slums. Since the fall of 2010 Peepoo toilets are sold in Kibera by female micro-entrepreneurs, who have thus gained a source of in-come to support their families.

”We are building an ecosystem around Peepoople so that everyone involved can make money and we are making use of every stage, from the education of women who are going to use and sell the Peepoo-bag, to those who will manage the collection.”

ThE SoCIAL INNoVATIoN pEEpoo-BAG

”Then we pushed the button and started looking for financing, with the goal of building a Swedish in-dustrial enterprise that would also do good for society”.

ExAmpLE by Erika Augustinsson & Elin Ekselius

Anders Wilhelmson is an architect and professor at the Art College of Sweden and the man behind the concept of the Peepoo-bag. Read more at www.peepoople.com.

Anders Wilhelmson

Peepoo-bag

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Björn Almér visiting Muka Dhera, Ethiopia

Barista is the only chain of coffee shops in Swe-den using 100% Arabica beans in their coffee. The coffee is also dual certified, i.e. both organic and fair Trade. Barista aims towards full transparency within coffee and tea production and has locations in malmö, Lund, Göteborg, Stockholm, uppsala, Sundsvall, Örnsköldsvik and umeå.

When Björn Almér founded Barista Fair Trade Coffee AB in 2006 together with Nina Forsberg and Maria Andersson, they were somewhat pioneers in their field in Sweden. Björn would often get the question if he was doing this “just to get rich” or if he was “good for real”. Since then a lot has changed he says: “Today it is ok to do good and at the same time earn money. If, in the long run, Barista can show others that it is possible to earn money, then others might follow. At the same time as we would like to grow bigger, it is important not to move too fast. We have to take small steps and be “moderately good” so that the customer is wil-ling to pay for what we are offering. We have to be able to handle scrutiny at all levels and always keep what we pro-mise. “ From day one Barista has only served coffee which is certified organic and Fair Trade. “We have never served an unethical cup of coffee”, says Björn. Running the business as a corporation was another obvious condition. “What you do as a private person has a relatively small effect. As an entrepreneur with a corporation you have a totally different engine. When you are doing well you can shift into a higher gear to keep up with the pace. Today, seeing with my own eyes how 500 children in Ethiopia get their school lunch

via our customers “Regulars Card” is such a wonderful feeling.” Björn and his colleagues think long term and are continuously deve-loping the company – taking it “one cup at a time”.

The “Regulars Card” will soon be produced in wood and the company uses God El - a more ethical energy provider. A few years ago Barista started importing the worlds first Fair Trade certified coke, Ubuntu. Ins-tead of keeping it to themselves they chose to release it: “We wanted to increase the volume. To us it was more important that goodness and Fair Trade grew, rather than us earning more money short term. Today Ubuntu can be found at several different Swedish distribu-tors and the volume has increased, which also benefits us. The purchasing price has basically been cut by half per can since we started buying them”, says Björn. When Barista was asked to join Forum for Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship it felt obvious to say yes. Perhaps until then, they had not really understood that they were social entrepreneurs, but now they do. “Up ahead I am sure that the interest for these issues will grow explosively, it will be impossible to grow as a company without taking responsi-bility. It has to be obvious that what you are doing has been thought through in a good way. Consumers are realizing their power and I think that within a short time we will see a totally new economy”, says Björn.

”TodAY IT IS ok To do Good ANd EArN moNEY”

ExAmpLE by Lotta Solding

Björn Almér is CEo and one of three founders of Barista Fair Trade Coffee AB. He is also on the board of the Swedish UN Fund.Read more at www.barista.cc

Barista was founded in 2006 when the own-ers felt there was a need for “someone who was both serious about coffee and fair in their attitude”. Every time a customer chooses to have coffee with the Barista “Regulars Card” the company, in collaboration with the UN, provides one school lunch to a child in Muka Dhera, Ethiopia. Since the card was launched in 2010 more than 300 000 school lunches have been served. Barista has 130 employees and a turnover of 38 million Swedish kroner.

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Living Lab Quarters is an innovation environment and a lab where academia, business, city and its inhabitants together can develop new ideas for a sustainable urban development, social innovation, collaborative services and new media. Living Lab Quarters is active all over malmö, but has a special focus on rosengård and fosie.

The Lab investigates how different ongoing projects and activities in the city (focusing on sustainability) can be linked together and how to enhance each other. As well as how new media and social innovations can support these projects. Central to the activities of the Lab is to connect different components, such as practitioners who are active within developing the city (associations, officials, residential representatives), but also entrepreneurs and researchers. The Lab helps set up workshops to develop ideas and also conducting small scale experiments to test the sustainabi-lity of various ideas.

Example of activities and projects within the Li-ving Lab Quarters:

UrbLove is a project that explored how cell phone games could be used to prevent prejudice and change the nega-tive image of the suburbs. In the project Parapolis the Lab explored how civil dialogue can be supported by new me-dia. Together with Do-Dream, Herrgårds Womens Asso-ciation and the Göran network, the Lab has explored how associations can become a resource to the surrounding community. During the spring of 2011 about 40 partici-pants from the private, public and non-profit sectors have gathered at the Living Lab Quarters to take part in three

workshops to discuss conditions for a future incubator for social innovation in Malmö.

Based within the Living Lab Quarters, the EU financed re-search project Peripheria has been connected to Malmö. The project explores how social innovation and sustainabi-lity can be supported by the internet of the future. Another project is being done together with Hållbara Hilda, which is a tenant association in Rosengård with 2000 tenants who have, together with Living Lab Quarters, decided to find new services and innovations that can benefit the tenants and increase the associations ventures for sustainable deve-lopment. The participating associations are Rörelsen Gatans Röst och Ansikte (RGRA), Herrgårds Womens Association, Hållbara Hilda, Drömmarnas Hus, the Environmental de-partment, City Planning Council, the Street department, SÖM-project and Rosengårds district administration. From the business sector Do-Fi, Good World AB, Ozma spel-design and Unsworn Industries have been involved. From Malmö University researchers from Urban Studies, Leisure Sciences, K3 and Medea have participated.

Malmö University co-production centre MEDEA Collabo-rative Media Initiative is hosting the Living Lab Quarters as well as two other Labs: Living Lab Stage, which explo-res how new media can be used to produce, share and finance culture; as well as the Living Lab Factory, which functions as an open workshop at STPLN in Västra Ham-nen, where citizens, researchers and businesses can come to prototype various ideas.

LIVING LABS AT mALmÖ uNIVErSITY: ThE QuArTEr

ExAmpLE by Per-Anders Hillgren

read more about Living Lab Quarters at medea.mah.se/2010/01/living-lab-the-neighbourhood

”The Lab investigates how different ongoing projects and activi-ties in the city can be linked together and enhance each other”.

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Social innovation and social entrepreneurship is a global trend which has arisen for several reasons, but first and foremost out of the great need for social innovations within the community. How social entrepreneurship is sha-ped depends on how the community system is set up, but there is a broad consensus in the world, that society´s traditional institutions are unable to solve all the challenges the world is facing right now. It’s about climate chal-lenges, demographic challenges, urbanization, aging population, segregation, unemployment and depopulation of rural areas and more.We need new stakeholders, new ideas and new innovations. Social innova-tion and social entrepreneurship is part of the solution to achieve sustainable development in an economical, social and ecological sense. But there is a need for a better support structure and a support system to promote the development of social entrepreneurs and social innovations.

These challenges could be some of the areas where we can find future growth opportu-nities. The market for mobile phones, com-puters and cars are overflowing; but how does it look in the community area - what kind of services do we have to choose from and how can we increase these services and make them better, more organic and more ethical? We can easily see that this is a neg-lected area, and thus several opportunities are opening up.

Within the EU health, medical care and green products and services are rai-sed up as good examples of areas that are already creating jobs and growth in Europe. This shows us that there is a new arena for growth where social innovation will play an important role. Innovative hybrid companies, i.e ”social enterprises”, are raised up as an example of a growing area where innovative and more effective sollutions to the challenges of our society is taking place. So is the area of information technology, where the growth of social media

such as Facebook and Twitter are simplifying collaboration between people and countries and is creating a breeding ground for social innovation.

Social entrepreneurs have the ability to see new business potential within the challenges and needs we are facing, yet without compromising the overall goal of having the greatest possible benefit to society. We see the social en-trepreneur as a bridge between several spheres, a skill becoming more and more attractive in a globalized era demanding continuous development and an interdisciplinary approach. This means that the social entrepreneur is con-tributing to developing a new kind of leadership that can suit a time in which the most important skills will be the ability to easily navigate between sectors and an ability to collaborate beyond borders. Social entrepreneurs challenge our traditional view of who is supposed to do what in our communities by combining different logics and methods previously reserved to a particular social structure. For example by transferring a more business perspective, previously reserved for the private sector, to the non-profit sector.

Sweden and Swedes have an international reputation of being socially re-sponsible and environmentally conscious. Today we are already good at colla-borating in various ways. Social innovators and social entrepreneurs can assist in updating and developing our skills for collaboration even more.

The Department of Commerce has, in their strategy for service innovations, made notice of social entrepreneurship and social innovation and put it on the agenda. They are also working with social innovation within the fram-ework of the national innovation strategy, which is to be presented in 2012.Social innovation, social entrepreneurship, collaboration and a long history of working with sustainable development provides Sweden great opportunities and ultimately export opportunities.

WhY IS SoCIAL INNoVATIoN ImporTANT?

WhY by Erika Augustinsson

read more at ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/innovation/policy/social-innovation

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The Innovation union, Europe 2020, is a strategy for innovation to take on challenges of society such as climate change, energy- and food security,

health and an aging population. Challenges needing to be solved, creating growth, creating new jobs as well as sharpening Europe´s innovation ability.

Within the framework of this strategy the concept of innovation has also come to include social innovation. This is how the EU describes social inno-vation:

”Social innovation is about utilizing the ingenuity within non-profit organi-sations, associations and social entrepreneurs, in order to find new ways to meet the social needs which are not met by the financial market, nor by the public sector.”

That is why the EU commission will launch, within the next few years, several initiatives to promote social innovation, among others within the framework of the European so-cial fund. At the beginning of 2011 they pre-sented a pilot-partnership for an active and healthy aging. Additional partnerships will follow, within the areas of energy, “smart” ci-ties and sustainable agriculture. During 2011 a research programme on the public sector and social innovation will be launched. In April 2011, the EU launched SIE, Social Innovation Europe. The pilot initiative SIE will be run for two years, as a consortium led by the global organisa-tion SIX, Social Innovation Exchange. One of the most important tasks is to build a digital platform to gather all stakeholders in Europe. SIE will also produce reports focusing on financing social innovations, what is “best-practice” within social innovation, models for growth and dissemination of social innovations as well as future directions for better support structures.

The primary reason for this initiative is that the EU commission considers social innovation not only to be a necessary area for Europe to actively develop, but which also can become an area where job opportunities and economic growth can be profiled and developed. BEPA, Bureau of European Policy Advisors has done a background report, which is the foundation of the entire effort of “Empowering people, driving change: Social innovation in the European Union.”

In the US Barack Obama has appointed an ”Office for social innovation”, which aims to support social entrepreneurs and their efforts to solve the challenges our society is facing in new ways, as well as establishing a “Social Innovation fund”.

In the United Kingdom so called social enterprises are a well known pheno-menon and are defined as “businesses that primarily are focusing on social goals and reinvests it´s profit, either into the business or into the local com-munity, rather than being forced to or driven by the need to maximize profit for shareholders and owners”. As early as 2002 Tony Blair launched a big effort to promote the social enterprise sector with the purpose of moder-nizing and bringing more and new stakeholders within the framework of the public sector. Access to capital was assessed, regulations were changed and other measures were taken to promote economic growth and today there are more than 62 000 social enterprises in the United Kingdom.

In Denmark they are working actively with social entrepreneurship. The Da-nish think-tank Mandag Morgen launched ”Välfärdens Ivärksätteri” (welfare entrepreneurship) in the spring of 2010 – a Danish strategy and plan of ac-tion for social entrepreneurs, developed in collaboration with a broad group of stakeholders from various sectors. It has been determined that social entrepreneurs are building bridges between civic society, the public sector and businesses, thus leading the way towards building future prosperity.

SoCIAL INNoVATIoN WIThIN ThE Eu ANd ThE WorLd

INTErNATIoNAL by Erika Augustinsson

read more at www.socialinnovation.se

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To invest in and find new ways to financially support social entrepreneurs and social innovations is becoming more

and more interesting.

Kevin Jones, from San Francisco, founded the investment fund Good Capital four years ago after a long time of considering what was needed in order to get the financial market to do more good for society. Good Capital has the same structure as a traditional in-vestment fund, where the investment is kept separate from what is called impact. The mo-ney is invested in various social businesses, within Fair Trade or for the environment. Ex-amples of this is Better World Books, Adina and Alter Eco.

It is a myth that we cannot earn money and do good, ac-cording to Kevin Jones.

“We are making more money because we are doing good. People trust us and they either donate or invest in our pro-jects. Having a social goal is the same as better business and increased value. Social return on investment is something which interests more and more people”, says Jones.New business models have grown out of their investment projects. Jones talks about new successful models they have identified so far. With Better World Books it is about using philanthropy, i.e people donating to a company they know do good for the community. Ordinarily donations are made to non-profit organisations and not to commercial businesses. In this case the difference is that the company is running a business with a social purpose.

Alter Eco is a company Kevin Jones calls “Fair Trade plus” because they are organic, Fair Trade certified as well as be-ing CO2 neutral. This means they can compete with local products.

Good Capital is also running Root Capital, an investment fund specifically targeting social businesses in slum areas in developing countries. Every year since 2008 Good Capital ar-ranges a conference, SOCAP, gathering social investors from all over the world in San Francisco. 2011 the first SOCAP Europe was arranged, which is the European part of the con-ference, and is held in Amsterdam.

“Social investments are the next Grameen phenomenon. We are doing for Fair Trade what Kiva is doing for microfinance”, says Kevin Jones.

According to him microfinance has created a small revolu-tion when it comes to working globally with poverty issues and has had a much greater effect than traditional non-profit organisation ever had. And the reason for this is because they are using logics from the financial market and because they are commercial. But he is sceptical about the glorification of social entrepreneurs as heroes. Now it is all about developing a system, in order for social entrepreneurs to grow and do even more good.

“I say the same as Tine Turner: We don´t need another hero… we need more social enterprises”.

kEVIN JoNES INVESTS IN SoCIAL INNoVATIoNS

INTErVIEW by Erika Augustinsson

”I say the same as Tine Turner : We don´t need another hero… we need more social enterprises”

Kevin Jones

kevin Jones is an American serial entrepreneur who has found-ed the investment fund Good Capital and the platform Social Capital Markets.. Read more at www.socialcapitalmarkets.net

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It was in England, during his doctorate stu-dies at the London School of Economics,

that Karl Palmås for the first time met social entrepreneurs and became interested in the subject. As part of his studies Palmås inter-viewed social entrepreneurs in the London area. The article was about the challenges Palmås saw in relation to social entrepre-neurs growing in numbers and how they would grow as a company. It was also about social entrepreneurs on the one hand balancing traditional entrepreneurship, with all it´s rules and norms, and on the other hand being a non-profit organisation which has a to-tally different set of structures and conditions.

”A social entrepreneur wants to mix these two structures. This results in having to balance on a challenging cutting edge. If you steer in one direction there is a risk of getting trapped in either being a pure non-profit like any other, or a pure company like any other”.

Karl Palmås book “The merciful entrepreneur – from pri-vatization to social business” was published in 2003. The topic was timely and the book became a success. Since then there has been more books. The latest, published in June 2011, bears the title “Prometheus or Narcissus? – The Entrepreneur as the changemaker of society”.

The term social entrepreneurship is used more and more and sometimes even more because it is fashionable, rather than having any deeper intention behind it. Palmås thinks the issue of hype is highly relevant right now.

”We are in a position where there is a risk of these concepts being deflated unless we start talking about specific expe-riments to make the economy function in a different way, rather than remaining at the question whether or not it is ok to change the world through entrepreneurship”.

Palmås thinks the politicians might have been right with the idea of a new form of corporate business without any inte-rest in profit. The UAV was introduced in Sweden in 2006 for social businesses wanting to deliver tax-financed public services. The reason this did not become a success was that people did not know that it existed.

“We can compare it to the CIC in the United Kingdom, which was well prepared, marketed in a good way and was highly rated on the governments agenda to make it work. There was a different magnitude to this initiative. Sweden could try something similar again, but this time it needs to be done properly rather than almost sneaking it out to the public, which was the case last time.”

At the same time as policymakers and politicians need to make the next move within this issue, many citizens have already done so by channelling their concern for community deve-lopment in new ways. Instead of trying to change the world through the traditional channels, such as demonstrating and becoming active within political parties or non-profit organi-sations, many are creating social innovations as entrepreneurs.

rESEArChING SoCIAL INNoVATIoNS

INTErVIEW by Maria Marathon Sjöberg

” We are in a position where there is a risk of these concepts being deflated unless we start talking about specific experiments to make the economy function in a different way”

Karl Palmås

karl palmås is a member of the board of the Forum for So-cial Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship. He has a PhD and is a researcher of organisational change and social entrepreneurship at Chalmers Technical University.

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We want to be a meeting point where we can utilize each others experiences. Together with the Mid Uni-

versity we intend, via this Forum, to tie together a network of researchers, nationally as well as internationally. The Mid University is focusing on rural development while at Malmö University we are taking more about urban direction. Forum for Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship is very growth orien-ted. It is sustainable and important to be able to make a living from services within social innovation. This is according to Eva Engquist at Malmö University, who has, together with the Mid University, in the spring of 2010 handed in an application to run the Forum for Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship.

“Social innovation is an important area because there are so many needs which are not met through the social sector. Within this area we want to develop new services”, says Eva.

Eva Engquist considers Malmö University to be a great plat-form and having good conditions for running the Forum for Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship. Within the university there are today a number of people working with issues and projects which are affected by these issues, working within areas such as: broadened recruitment, integration, mig-ration, multiculturalism, health, new media, urban development and leadership. The University is collaborating with several projects, especially with the city of Malmö and Region Skåne. ”Via the Forum we hope to gather knowledge both from within and outside of Malmö University. We need to work more systematically with these issues and we need to scale up and work in a more businesslike manner.

We need to find new models for social innovation and above all find good ways to finance this”, says Eva Engquist and concludes:“The issues we are working with are to a great degree rele-vant to the EU, which in it´s eighth framework, among other things, mentions the environment, energy, health, migration, care for elders and education as future challenges”.

“Within Forum for Social Innovation and Social Entrepre-neurship we have chosen to focus on sustainable urban development and sustainable sparse rural structures, lead-ership, financing and corporate social responsibility. Society faces great challenges right now and we need to develop new ways to deal with them in new constellations. I see the Forum as a joint laboratory for social innovation and social entrepreneurship. We will test and find new models in order to scale up and spread what is good”, says Hanna Sigsjö, project manager at the Forum for Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship.

For example, work is being done to make a proposal for how Sweden can work with promote this field by presen-ting a blueprint for how a national strategy for social innova-tion and social entrepreneurship might look. “Sweden is really moving right now within this field and we can see obvious opportunities for us as a country to be part of and lead the development forward”.

A LAB for SoCIAL INNoVATIoN

INTErVIEW by Lotta Solding

Eva and Hanna

Eva Engquist is vice principal at Malmö University and respon-sible for the university´s collaboration. She is the chairperson of the board of the Forum for Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneur-ship. hanna Sigsjö is the project manager.

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”Within Forum for Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneur-ship we have chosen to focus on sustainable urban development and sustainable sparse rural structures, leadership, financing and corporate social responsibility”.

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One of the worlds leading organisations within social innovation is the British think-tank Young Founda-

tion. Run by Geoff Mulgan for some time, one of Europe´s leading voices within the field of social innovation.

Geoff Mulgan is now CEO of NESTA, the British innovation fund. He has also, for several years, been CEO of The Young Foundation, served as advisor to Tony Blair and founded Demos, an influential British think tank.

The Young Foundation was founded by Michael Young, a sociologist and social entrepreneur who founded more than 60 organisations during his lifetime. The most well known is SSE, School for Social Entre-preneurs, as well as Open University.

Lately The Young Foundation has been very active in working with the EU com-mission to incorporate social innovation on the European political agenda.

Geoff Mulgan tells us that there was somewhat of a tur-ning point for European effor ts for social innovation in October 2009 when a panel of representatives from big European companies presented the opinion that it is very important to create structures to promote business inno-vation, but that we also need innovations to reach social goals for sustainable growth.

Among other things, this resulted in the EU developing a new future strategy in the fall of 2010 - Innovation Union – which also contains several effor ts for social innovation. “This is about an increased interest of investing in social innovation in Europe. Twenty years ago we only saw finan-cial growth within areas such as computers, telecom and medicine, and they are still important. But today, when we look at where the future growth is, both in terms of GDP and in terms of job opportunities the most important sectors are medical care, health, education, green industry – all sectors where you find a combined economy which is run by both private, public and non-profit”.

Social innovation and social entrepreneurship is an area becoming increasingly important. The world and Europe needs social innovation in order to manage many of the great social challenges that exist.“We are facing a dramatic turning point within the eco-nomy and this change is now slowly reaching governme-nts at the European level. This means that we need to find new ways to solve social challenges as well as finding new markets that are being created right now and which services within this area that might become future plat-forms for trade”.

The emergence of this area also brings new work, met-hods, platforms, needs and even new ways to commu-nicate. Mulgan mentions a few examples such as social innovation incubators, new methods for measuring social good and new functions such as intermediates – a kind of brokerage role between individuals and organisations in different sectors of society and industries.

GEoff muLGAN LEAdS ThE WAY

INTErVIEW by Erika Augustinsson

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”This is about an increased interest of investing in social innovation in Europe. Twenty years ago we only saw financial growth within areas such as computers, te-lecom and medicine”.

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The Forum for Social Innovation and Social Entrepre-neurship develops research, knowledge and competencies within the growing areas of social innovation and social entrepreneurship. We gather academy, business, public and non-profit stakeholders in Sweden who want to promote social innovation. A collaboration we hope in the long run will lead to specific common projects, new sustainable bu-siness models and for new products and services to be developed.

The Forum for Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneur-ship focuses on specific areas such as sustainable urban development and sustainable sparse structures, leadership, forms for collaborative production, financing and compa-nies social responsibility, CSR.

During 2012 we will present an outline for a strategy for how Sweden can work with social innovation and social entrepreneurship in the future. A policy document we hope can guide national efforts. We have also established a “task force” which can present various financial solutions for soci-al innovation. To help us we have a large group of stakehol-ders from various sectors, our own stakeholders as well as a network of researchers and everybody else interested in promoting the development of this area. All this and much more can be found on our website and in our newsletter!

Website: www.socialinnovation.seTwitter : @samhallsentreprFacebook: www.facebook.com/socinn

Eva Engquist

vice principal Malmö University

and chairperson of the board

Email: eva.engquist@mah.se

Cellphone: +46 708 - 577 914

hanna Sigsjö

project manager

Email: hanna.sigsjo@mah.se

Cellphone: +46 709 - 655 433

Erika Augustinsson

editor/communications manager

Email: erika.augustinsson@mah.se

Cellphone: +46 705 - 360 990

ABouT forum for SoCIAL INNoVATIoN ANd SoCIAL ENTrEprENEurShIp

Working within a kind of hybrid-organisation such as for example Forum for Social Innovation and So-cial Entrepreneurship, that moves across different sec-tors of society is according to Geoff Mulgan of great importance to how suc-cessful you are at working with social innovations. It means one can maintain different perspectives, one from within and one from the outside. This is the kind of perspective that large institutions such as the EU Commission desperately need.

“Even if Scandinavia might have a hard time with cer tain concepts and expres-sions, such as looking at community- and social problems as a new market, it has a leading position in the world when it comes to shaping new post-industrial po-litics. One where for example health and medical care is not seen as a debilitating area but rather an area of growth and new job opportunities.”

Geoff mulgan is CEo of the British innovation fund NESTA but has for several years worked as CEO of The Young Foundation. He has also served as advisor to the EU Commission and to Tony Blair. Read more at www.youngfoundation.org

What do models for social innovation look like? How can we make social innovations grow and spread? What works and what does not work?

The innovation process of the Young Founda-tion looks like this:

Start with the problem - what do we want to solve?Develop a proposal for actionMake a prototype and test if it works.Find durability. How can it be run long term?In the final step, one reaches a change of system.

The six stages of social innovation

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www.socialinnovation.se

In collaboration with:Barista, Coompanion co-op develop-ment Jämtlands County, Coompanion

Skåne, CSR Factory, HSB Malmö, IBM, KK-stiftelsen, Malmö Business Groups, Malmö University, City of Malmö, Mid University, Näsbygdens Utveckling AB, Ovikenbo-laget Invest, Playing for Change, PwC,

Region Skåne, Scandic, Skåne Stadsmission, Trångsviksbolaget