lab matters: opening up social laboratories
DESCRIPTION
Social innovation labs are the latest vehicles for systemic change – for disrupting the way our cities, our schools, our welfare programs, even our economic systems run. But how do they really work? It is time to get beyond the hype and properly probe into the practices and underlying theories of social innovation laboratories. To make our assumptions explicit about how labs prompt systemic change. To critique its logic. To ultimately learn how labs could lead to better functioning systems. Which enable people to live ‘better’ lives, both now and in the future. To make a first step in this learning curve, Kennisland and Hivos (with the support of the SIX network) hosted Lab2: a two-day lab on social innovation labs from the Americas, Europe, Africa, Oceania and Asia. This presentation shares the outcomes and ideas on how to move forward.TRANSCRIPT
Lab Matters: Opening up Social Laboratories
by Marlieke Kieboom [email protected]
Tuesday, November 12, 13
Marlieke Remko
Once upon a time ...
Tuesday, November 12, 13
Kennisland Hivos
small (18) large (342)
NL/Europe International
1,6 mln 115 mln
independent subsidies
Own experiments Partner organisations
societal challenges + do somethingsocietal challenges + do something
research experiment
bring people togetherpolitical lobby
smarter peoplebetter society
educationcultural heritage
creative economycopyright
social innovationpublic sector
Tuesday, November 12, 13
Social challenges + do something ?
Complexity
time
public systems
social challenges
source: Joeri van den Steenhoven / Marlieke Kieboom
wicked problems
social or cultural problems that are difficult to
solve because of incomplete, contradictory, changing
requirements and scattered problemholders
eg. climate change, obesity, migration,
poverty, drug trafficking, financial crsisis,
unemployment, aging
typically offloaded to policy
makers, or written off as being too cumbersome
to bother with.
Tuesday, November 12, 13
ChrisSarah Josine
Social challenges + do something !
What the # are social labs?
Tuesday, November 12, 13
The internet says...
Text
source: SIgeneration
source: bc.edu
Tuesday, November 12, 13
traditional organisations vs lab
source: Satsuko van Antwerp
Tuesday, November 12, 13
Tech Lab vs Social Lab
source: inwithforward.com
Tuesday, November 12, 13
popping up all over the world
source: Satsuko van Antwerp /
SIG
Tuesday, November 12, 13
Easy to open up data (what) about the stuff you do...
.. but not easy to open up organisations (how?) & people (who?) behind the data to
learn from each others practice and discover interests (why?) (for whome?)
Tuesday, November 12, 13
Let’s open up the lab’s black box
Tuesday, November 12, 13
special ingredients to be openRigor of the
ContentLearning
environmet
historical analysis where we share
theoretical debate with whome we share
live case studies how we share
KL+Hivos+Lab
Practitioners
Frances Westley
No funders present
Read more on SSIreviewS. Schulman
Tuesday, November 12, 13
Lab2: the Lab about Labs
20 labs
do tank, SI lab, design lab, living lab, fab lab, tech lab, hub, hive, centre for innovation, change lab
Issue focus: technical,
environmental, economic, social
0-15 yrs old
Funds: Diverse! Gates Foundation,
Rockefeller, Hivos, Governments,
Worldbank, Unicef
40 people
Africa, East-Asia, South America, USA, Australia,
Europe,
multi-team: researchers,
thematic experts, ethnographers,
designers
creativeanalytic
strong stewardshipshow not tell
attitude
work with ‘the system’: policy makers, service
providers, end-users, politicians
20 wicked
problems
well-being, education,
environment, economy, public
health, democratization,
poverty reduction, social
tech, public sector innovation
service designsystems change
researchnetwork
methodology dev.
methodologies: system thinkingdesign thinking
co-creationvisualizationprototyping
feedback loopsevualuation
?
Tuesday, November 12, 13
Lab2: what do labs doenable
families to thrive
www.familybyfamily.org.au
happy school drop outs
www.iminet.org
supply chain: better toilets
www.ide-cambodia.org
better educationwww.onderwijspioniers.nl
better child protection
www.tacsi.org.au
new auditing
http://thefinancelab.org
functional waste system
http://oneearthweb.org
election monitoring
www.ushahidi.com
help social start-ups www.bongohive.co.zm
http://afrilabs.com
Tuesday, November 12, 13
What did we learn?Lab struggles
Lab anatomy
Team Hire
End-User Contracting Funding
Methodology
Lab environment
Scale TimeManufactur
ability PoliticsSystems Change
Tuesday, November 12, 13
So.. what do we need more of?
Cut the crap Humbleness
Share your crap Courage
Engage with each others crap Collective Learning
Less crappy solutions Better processes
Decision Making
StructuresPolicy Making
StructuresEvaluation
unhype!
You are not neutral
collective buy-in
Tuesday, November 12, 13
We need more deep learning!ways to get involved ...
3
Lab Mattersreflect on practice of labs with the aim to
arrive at new ideas to try out
by Marlieke KieboomUpcoming @ www.kl.nl
Lab LaddersElevate our thinking on social innovation and encourage researchers to study the innovation field more critically from a
political perspective
by Marlieke Kieboom Upcoming @ www.kl.nl
A Lab of LabsA report from Lab2, and why learning to reflect on our assumptions about how
change happens has value, whether or not “lab” is in your title.
by Sarah Schulman http://www.ssireview.org/blog/entry/
a_lab_of_labs
Lab Resourceshttp://lab2.kl.nl
2014? Kenya?
Tuesday, November 12, 13
Let’s open up
Do labs help to solve complex problems?
What would your organisations look like if it was a lab?
What challenge areas do you see?
Tuesday, November 12, 13
Thank You!
Marlieke Kieboom Kennisland / www.kennisland.nl
Lab Resourceshttp://lab2.kl.nl
http://sigeneration.ca
Tuesday, November 12, 13