Bereich: Arbeit & Chancengleichheit

This paper summarizes the discussion outcomes of the session “Empowerment for vulnerable people through `digital social innovation`” during the conference “Social Innovation 2015. Pathways to Social Change”, 18^th-19^th November 2015, Vienna. The session dealt with a triple intersection: It asked for social innovations empowering vulnerable people and focused on those social innovations which are either “supported” or “enabled” (Millard/Carpenter 2014) by digital technology (“digital social innovations” DSI, Bria 2014). The notion of “Social Innovation” is based on the understanding of Howaldt/Schwarz (2010) as “new social practices”, trying to solve problems in a better way than existing practices. The notion of “vulnerable people” refers to those hindered from meaningful participation in various social fields, like employment, education or health by the social and technological environment. The session focused on the question of the ability of social innovation to support or enable vulnerable people by digital means and which aspects of vulnerability could be addressed by digital social innovation in particular.

The aim of the workshop was to develop an agenda for empowerment for vulnerable people through digital social innovation (DSI). This agenda has a twofold objective. (1) It addresses policy-makers in order to highlight both the potential of DSI for empowering vulnerable people and the research gaps in the field. It links the opportunities of multi-stakeholder social innovation models and the roles ICT can play and depicts the need to promote and support research on “empowerment through DSI” from an integrated perspective. (2) The agenda also addresses scientists themselves. It encourages them to tackle the topic and establish a new research focus on this upcoming hot topic.

The research agenda is built upon theses and open questions the invited workshop experts brought to the discussion. In order to gain a sufficiently comprehensive picture, the workshop brought together inputs from third sector organisations, the business sector, research & education as well as a policy perspective. The agenda was complemented by comments made by the audience. The workshop outcomes are grouped in four thematic strands. Each combines theses and central research questions and objectives.

AutorInnen: Christoph Kaletka & Bastian Pelka, Dortmund

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