Co-production, design and social innovation

Social Innovation needs to cross boundaries, become embedded in organisational process and practice and develop what Geoff Mulgan and his co-authors call ‘compelling new relationships’     .

One of the central questions is, what methodologies can we use to ensure that our efforts at social innovation can achieve these elements? In my experience it is often the case that we neglect ‘back office’ components  such as methodology, the practices, processes and rules that underpin our actions. Instead we take ‘off-the-peg’ innovation processes which fit comfortably with what Argyris & Schon call espoused theories http://www.infed.org/thinkers/argyris.htm. Our actual theories-in-use are themselves embedded within our mindsets and routines and are implicit in our role and collective practice. In order to fully realise the potential of social innovations we need to look back and forward; back into the hidden wiring that underpins our individual and collective actions and forward to the outcomes for which we aim and the collective vision which we seek to realise.

Co-production can be utilised to achieve review and reflection on the one hand and exploration and experimentation on the other. I am keen to explore how co-production, with design thinking and practice at its heart, can achieve this dual task. Through my research I am seeking to bring together partners, processes, theories and practices to build a c0-production ‘design space’  which will facilitate this exploration and experimentation and advance in real terms our capacity for social innovation and transformation.