ABSTRACT
This chapter presents design for social innovation and discusses its main benefits, limitations and unresolved issues, as well as its current and future research directions. Social innovation aims to address socially relevant issues. The outputs of social innovation processes may cover products, services, strategies, ideas, new organisational forms and social movements, as well as new approaches to the delivery of public services. Even if social innovations are often driven by communities, professional designers can play a significant role in promoting and supporting social innovations. A number of tools and methods have been developed for use by designers and communities in social innovation projects. While systemic thinking and more conventional design skills (such as visualisation and prototyping) are considered strengths of the design approach in achieving social innovation, criticisms have been raised about the naivety of designers proposing superficial solutions and the high cost of design services. These are valid criticisms and part of a broader discussion about the changes needed in professional design culture and design education in order to stay socially relevant in a post-industrial era, a fundamental characteristic of which is intensifying social and environmental crises.
