Purpose

Social innovation (SI) has been promoted by policymakers for addressing all kinds of social issues in the context of diminishing government resources. It is, however, difficult to assess the efficiency of SI-based public policies, as the process of SI itself remains largely nebulous. The purpose of this paper is to better understand this process with a focus on its early stage, until the point of identifying a socially innovative idea and in the context of disadvantaged rural communities in India.

Design/methodology/approach

Co-creation workshops were facilitated to generate socially innovative solutions in villages, using co-design technique. Following an action research approach, qualitative data was collected to produce case studies.

Findings

This study found that SI was appropriate for addressing development challenges in rural India. Facilitated co-creation was successful in involving all citizens and effective in generating SI. The authors developed a framework of generating SI through co-creation that gives a more precise understanding of the SI process.

Practical implications

The authors propose a method for co-creating SI that can be of significant use for practitioners. Findings can help design better and more socially impactful public policies.

Originality/value

This paper focusses on understanding the process of generating SI, using a participatory approach. It is the first work that has been conducted of this sort in the context of Indian rural villages.

中文翻译：

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通过行动研究在印度农村共同创造探索社会创新

目的

政策制定者推动社会创新 (SI) 以在政府资源减少的背景下解决各种社会问题。然而，很难评估基于 SI 的公共政策的效率，因为 SI 本身的过程在很大程度上仍然模糊不清。本文的目的是更好地理解这一过程，重点关注其早期阶段，直到确定社会创新理念和印度弱势农村社区的背景。

设计/方法/方法

使用共同设计技术促进了共同创造研讨会，以在村庄中产生社会创新的解决方案。按照行动研究方法，收集定性数据以生成案例研究。

发现

本研究发现，SI 适合应对印度农村的发展挑战。促进共同创造成功地让所有公民参与并有效地产生了 SI。作者开发了一个通过共同创造生成 SI 的框架，可以更准确地理解 SI 过程。

实际影响

作者提出了一种共同创建 SI 的方法，该方法对从业者非常有用。调查结果有助于设计更好、更具社会影响力的公共政策。

原创性/价值

本文重点介绍使用参与式方法生成 SI 的过程。这是在印度农村背景下进行的第一项此类工作。