The 16th ISIRC in Bern in Review

The Social Research Center was strongly represented at the 16th ISIRC in Bern, Switzerland, with a total of seven researchers, eleven contributions and two organized streams, and provided new impetus with its contributions. Katrin Bauer wins an award with her paper.

The 16th ISIRC (International Social Innovation Research Conference) took place this year in Bern, Switzerland, and was organized by the Business School of Bern University of Applied Sciences. The ISIRC is one of the leading international, annual scientific conferences for scientists in the field of social innovation research. This was once again demonstrated at the 16th ISIRC through a series of keynotes by Sophie Bacq (IMD, Lausanne) and Johanna Mair (Hertie School, Berlin) on the first day of the conference and by Flor Avelino (Utrecht University, Netherlands) and Gorgi Krlev (ESCP, Paris, France) on the last day, held at the traditional Hotel National, as well as through research streams that addressed the topic of social innovation from different angles and with different thematic and theoretical foci.

The main conference took place on the campus of Bern University of Applied Sciences over three days with a total of 18 streams. The sfs team was strongly represented here with Jürgen Howaldt, Christoph Kaletka, Rick Hölsgens, Ralf Kopp, Karina Maldonado-Mariscal, Katrin Bauer and Marthe Zirngiebl. Two streams were organized and moderated with the participation of sfs researchers: Christoph Kaletka and Marthe Zirngiebl were responsible for the stream "Social Innovation Ecosystems", Karina Maldonado-Mariscal led the stream "Social innovation and circular economy" together with her colleagues Rafael Ziegler (HEC Montreal, Canada) and Michael Roy (University of Stirling, UK). The sfs team also provided new impetus with eleven contributions in various topics and streams. The researchers presented their current research projects and papers.

There was also something to celebrate: The paper "Taking the Barrier View to Approach Challenges in Urban Contexts: A Framework Towards Public Sector Social Innovation Orientation" by Katrin Bauer was awarded the Best PhD Paper Award of the conference at the Gala Dinner. In her research, she examines how public sector actors enable social innovation, and develops a framework for this.

The contributions of the sfs team addressed the broad topics of social innovation ecosystems, circular value creation and higher education for social innovation, but also different perspectives on and for social innovation, such as theoretical considerations and understanding of or frameworks for promoting social innovation. The list of contributions* shows the diversity and new impulses provided by the sfs team:

Katrin Bauer: Taking the Barrier View to Approach Challenges in Urban Contexts: A Framework Towards Public Sector Social Innovation Orientation

Katrin Bauer, Marthe Zirngiebl, Christoph Kaletka, Alexander Dederichs, Ralf Kopp and Daniel Krüger: HEIs in the German SI Ecosystem: Tackling social innovation(s) in all three missions?

Egle Butkeviciene and Karina Maldonado-Mariscal: Understanding social innovation ecosystems: experiences from the CHESS project in Lithuania

Rick Hölsgens, Jorge Cunha and Alaize Dall’Orsoletta: Misunderstandings, misappropriations, misinterpretations: social innovation and Babylonian confusion

Jürgen Howaldt: Social innovation: the emergence of a research field and future challenges

Jürgen Howaldt, Douglas Wegner and Rodrigo Pereira dos Santos: Digital Ecosystems and Platforms for Social Innovation

Ralf Kopp and Antonius Schröder: Collaboration between Manufacturing Enterprises and Civil Society as a challenge for mission-oriented innovation ecosystems by the example of the EU-concept “Industry 5.0

Michael Kriegel, Stephanie Kapitza, Sarah Baumann, Karina Maldonado-Mariscal and Sven-Daniel Gettys: Reducing Complexity through Intercultural Communication & Stories How Storytelling influences the perspective on social innovation

Karina Maldonado-Mariscal, Justine Ballon, Rick Hölsgens, Mario Pansera and Rafael Ziegler: Navigational agency of cooperatives in the choice and development of circular technologies: a typology for transformative change

Karina Maldonado-Mariscal and Rick Hölsgens: Reimagining Innovation Pathways: Exnovation and Buen Vivir as Global North-South Dialogues

Marthe Zirngiebl: Social Innovation Research und Practice Theories – Using Practice Theories’ Lenses to Analyse the Diffusion of Social Innovation

* in alphabetical order of the first named authors

The next ISIRC will take place from September 3-5, 2025 at the University of Calgary in Canada.

Further information: https://www.bfh.ch/de/aktuell/news/2024/isirc-rueckblick/

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