scholarly journals Spread and conditions of Social Innovation Research in Austria in the field of Social Sciences

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Klaus Schuch ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Entrepreneurship ◽  
Business School ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Innovation Research ◽  
Support Measures ◽  
Different Levels

This paper scrutinises the spread and the conditions of social innovation research in Austria in social sciences. Although the empirical results are inconclusive, social innovation is definitely not a marginal topic in social sciences in Austria. More than 80% of the responding social scientists deal with social innovation at different levels of intensity. It also seems that social innovation works well for the overall self-representation of the universities. The construct of social entrepreneurship has probably contributed most to anchoring the notion of social innovation in the higher education sector in Austria, especially in teaching. Although some curricula and courses are more confined to traditional business school topics, some transcend the narrow business focus towards sociological and political approaches. The academic embedding of social innovation in Austria, however, is still hampered by structural factors. Our findings show a lack of both tangible and intangible support measures.

EDUCATING SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP: INSIGHTS FROM THE HIGHER EDUCATION COURSES IN HONG KONG

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (01n02) ◽  
pp. 145-164
Author(s):  
KIN YUEN RAYMOND TAM
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
General Education ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Social Entrepreneurship ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Single Subject ◽  
Education Courses

The purpose of this article is to uncover the trend of developing education courses for social entrepreneurship in higher education institutions in Hong Kong. The author had searched the syllabi or course descriptions across the websites of the higher education institutions in Hong Kong with the keywords of entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship and social innovation. It was found that most of the social entrepreneurship courses offered were one-off single subject for undergraduate students, General Education courses, and minor courses, with only a few courses targeting postgraduates. It was also found that curricular differences among the courses offered by various schools or faculties were not that obvious. To understand this, the author had undertaken an analysis of the schools where these courses resided, course objectives, course content, and teaching and learning strategies among these various social entrepreneurship courses. Discussion of these has given insights to arguing for the need of multidisciplinary collaborations among social entrepreneurship educators.

scholarly journals Integrating Social Innovation into the Curriculum of Higher Education Institutions in Latin America: Insights from the Students4Change Project

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5378
Author(s):  
Alfonso Unceta ◽  
Igone Guerra ◽  
Xabier Barandiaran
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Social Entrepreneurship ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
American Universities ◽  
Support Strategies ◽  
Social Innovations ◽  
Latin American Universities

In the last two decades, social innovation (SI) and social entrepreneurship (SE) have gained relevance and interest within the framework of academia at international level. Higher education institutions (HEIs) are key players in promoting innovation and social entrepreneurship initiatives that respond to multifaceted challenges. They support strategies on the basis of the strengthening of participation, collaboration, and cooperation with society and its local communities. However, the approach of Latin American universities to SI and SE has been very uneven in the way they have understood them, integrated them into academic programmes, and transferred knowledge to society. On the basis of the experience of the Students4Change project, we sought to understand the role of Latin American HEIs in promoting social innovations by analysing the experiences of 10 participating universities to formalise a pedagogical programme on SI and SE in their institutions. The results suggest that there is still a need to formalise an academic syllabus that is specifically designed to promote social innovations and to train universities in this endeavour. This paper contributes to the identification of the main levers of change, strengths, and challenges that Latin American universities face to institutionalise SI and SE in their contexts.

A Quiet Success

2020 ◽  
pp. 86-99
Author(s):  
Zheping Xie
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Higher Education ◽  
European Union ◽  
Joint Ventures ◽  
Business School ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Studies ◽  
Chinese Universities ◽  
Academic Relations ◽  
The Eu

The EU–China Higher Education Cooperation Program (1997–2001) in European studies and social sciences was a pioneer as well as a milestone in the field of higher education cooperation between the European Union and China. It promoted academic exchanges among scholars, expanded European Studies in China, and furthered the internationalization of Chinese universities. Many of the beneficiaries of the project would go on to distinguished and influential careers. Less well known and less visible than physical joint ventures such as the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), this project nonetheless laid a foundation for contemporary European Studies in China and for the growth of mutually beneficial academic relations between China and the European Union. The product of a “golden era” of EU–China relations, it is unlikely to be duplicated in the future.

scholarly journals Re-Designing, Humanizing and Globalizing Higher ducation: Disruptive Strategies for Business School Leadership from the Bottom Up

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Social Entrepreneurship ◽  
Business School ◽  
School Faculty ◽  
The Third World ◽  
The University ◽  
Campus Center ◽  
New Strategies ◽  
Roll Out

This paper highlights disruptive strategies to move students from the classroom and traditional business education to using their skills in impoverished villages in the Third World. Beginning in the late 1990s, innovations were designed by faculty and students to roll out a pro-poor agenda that includes the following: Student-led microfinance NGO spinoffs, accounting school faculty and students offering financial training and services, MPA student initiatives that assist African village leaders, annual social entrepreneurship conferences, the establishing of a campus center for economic self-reliance, and more. We will describe the leadership processes that evolved as these and other campus programs were established and rolled out to effect real social change across the globe. As described below, many of these efforts began at the lower level of the university, among students and professors, not at the top. However, this kind of higher education leadership from below promises exciting and path-breaking new strategies for higher education scholars and practitioners everywhere, especially within the context of schools of management.

scholarly journals Exploring social innovation (SI) within the research contexts of higher education, healthcare, and welfare services – a scoping review

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-110
Author(s):  
Anne Marie Lunde Husebø ◽  
Marianne Storm ◽  
Atle Ødegård ◽  
Charlotte Wegener ◽  
Marie Aakjær ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Qualitative Research Methods ◽  
Nordic Countries ◽  
Welfare Services ◽  
Innovation Research

Introduction: Nordic countries face societal challenges for which social innovation may represent solutions. The aim of this scoping review is to explore the concept of social innovation within the research contexts of higher education, ealthcare, and welfare services. Method: A scoping review methodology was used, including a literature search and the identification of eligible studies published between 2007 and 2019, in addition to data extraction and synthesis. Forty-three studies were included in this review. Results: Across the research contexts, social innovation is conceptualized as a set of novel, creative, human-centred, and value-driven processes aiming to bring about change. Qualitative research methods dominate social innovation research. In welfare services, social innovation concerns the relationship between policy and praxis, new forms of leadership and management, and the promotion of societal inclusion and cohesion. Social innovation in healthcare comprises the use of technology to digitalize service, enhance patients’ well-being, and improve service quality. In higher education, social innovation research focuses on educational reforms involving non-profit stakeholders. Discussion: Social innovation is a multifaceted concept related to change at the organizational or societal level, often with various stakeholders working together to create improvements. The lack of a common definition and framework of social innovation makes this concept difficult to measure or quantify, reflecting the dominance of qualitative research methods in the selected research contexts. Across these research contexts, social innovation can be defined and used for various research purposes, which are often political and value-based, with the latter connected to the common good and people’s well-being. Moreover, few social innovation studies have been performed in Nordic countries.

The reformed social sciences to reform the university: mission impossible?

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davydd J. Greenwood ◽  
Morten Levin
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Higher Education ◽  
Research Network ◽  
Knowledge Generation ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Challenges ◽  
Organisational Factors ◽  
The University

The core argument is that social science must re-examine its mission and praxis in order to be a significant player in future higher education. This article reviews the results and prospects arising from a four-year international project. Originating in Greenwood and Levin's concern about the social sciences, the project, funded by the Ford Foundation, was organised as an action research network of social scientists. Meeting several times over four years, the assembled group of scholars shifted focus from the future of the social sciences to broader questions of the future of higher education as a whole and the possible role of the social sciences. Four issues emerged as vital future challenges:• Collective denial among academics that knowledge production (research and teaching) is a collaborative effort and that individual academics depend on and are responsible for contributing to the health of the academic collectivity.• Academic freedom, conceived as an individual right is under siege and will have to be reconstructed to include both individual rights and collective and institutional responsibilities and rights in higher education.• An appreciation of the multiplicity of teaching, research and organisational factors that interact to constitute healthy universities is lacking in most quarters.• Technologies of accountability now drive the development of higher education towards a focus on an artificially narrow metrics of knowledge-generation and away from inquiry into what constitutes relevant and sustainable knowledge-generation practices.

Emergence of geo-enabled research in social sciences: The case of societal higher education issues

2016 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 555-567 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnau Fombuena
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Higher Education ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
Internationalization Of Higher Education ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Global Trends ◽  
General Lack ◽  
Societal Challenges ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range

The rapid expansion of global trends and the internationalization of higher education are increasingly requiring the consideration of the geospatial factor for better-informed inquiries on the related societal challenges. The article’s findings point to the need to overcome education researchers’ general lack of interest in the geospatial dimension because it offers great opportunities for social scientists in a wide range of disciplines to take advantage of geo-enabled research capabilities to spatially analyze socio-educational issues and thus to benefit from the availability of an emerging perspective for enriching the current methodological practices in the social sciences in general.

Value-driven issues throughout the development of sociological theory

2020 ◽  
pp. 147-160
Author(s):  
Gulbarshyn Chepurko ◽  
Valerii Pylypenko
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social System ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Social Sphere ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Different Levels

The paper examines and compares how the major sociological theories treat axiological issues. Value-driven topics are analysed in view of their relevance to society in times of crisis, when both societal life and the very structure of society undergo dramatic change. Nowadays, social scientists around the world are also witnessing such a change due to the emergence of alternative schools of sociological thought (non-classical, interpretive, postmodern, etc.) and, subsequently, the necessity to revise the paradigms that have been existed in sociology so far. Since the above-mentioned approaches are often used to address value-related issues, building a solid theoretical framework for these studies takes on considerable significance. Furthermore, the paradigm revision has been prompted by technological advances changing all areas of people’s lives, especially social interactions. The global human community, integral in nature, is being formed, and production of human values now matters more than production of things; hence the “expansion” of value-focused perspectives in contemporary sociology. The authors give special attention to collectivities which are higher-order units of the social system. These units are described as well-organised action systems where each individual performs his/her specific role. Just as the role of an individual is distinct from that of the collectivity (because the individual and the collectivity are different as units), so too a distinction is drawn between the value and the norm — because they represent different levels of social relationships. Values are the main connecting element between the society’s cultural system and the social sphere while norms, for the most part, belong to the social system. Values serve primarily to maintain the pattern according to which the society is functioning at a given time; norms are essential to social integration. Apart from being the means of regulating social processes and relationships, norms embody the “principles” that can be applied beyond a particular social system. The authors underline that it is important for Ukrainian sociology to keep abreast of the latest developments in the field of axiology and make good use of those ideas because this is a prerequisite for its successful integration into the global sociological community.

Evidence-Based Social Sciences: A New Emerging Field

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-211
Author(s):  
Nazila Zarghi ◽  
Soheil Dastmalchian Khorasani
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Internal Validity ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Social Settings ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Academic Area ◽  
Different Levels

Abstract Evidence based social sciences, is one of the state-of- the-art area in this field. It is making decisions on the basis of conscientious, explicit and judicious use of the best available evidence from multiple sources. It also could be conducive to evidence based social work, i.e a kind of evidence based practice in some extent. In this new emerging field, the research findings help social workers in different levels of social sciences such as policy making, management, academic area, education, and social settings, etc.When using research in real setting, it is necessary to do critical appraisal, not only for trustingon internal validity or rigor methodology of the paper, but also for knowing in what extent research findings could be applied in real setting. Undoubtedly, the latter it is a kind of subjective judgment. As social sciences findings are highly context bound, it is necessary to pay more attention to this area. The present paper tries to introduce firstly evidence based social sciences and its importance and then propose criteria for critical appraisal of research findings for application in society.

Desafíos del sistema de educación superior en Ecuador para la era de la complejidad

2016 ◽  
pp. 89
Author(s):  
Martha Concepción Macías ◽  
Francisco Mendoza Moreira
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Education System ◽  
Educación Superior ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Educacion Superior ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
The Law ◽  
Different Levels

RESUMENLa universidad ecuatoriana, en los últimos seis años, a partir de la aprobación en el año 2010 de la Ley Orgánica de Educación Superior, ha sido expuesta a nuevos retos y desafíos que comprometen a cada uno de los tejidos institucionales participantes en su gestión. Este artículo analiza siete de esos retos en el marco de la ley, de la reflexión epistemológica y las metas que se le plantean como sistema sustancial en el cambio de la matriz cognitiva, productiva y de servicio del país. Los resultados son reflexiones propias de actores del sistema educativo superior que se desenvuelven en diferentes planos de intervención, quienes proponen acciones inmediatas y mediatas para alcanzar una Universidad adaptable a la Era de la Complejidad.Palabras clave: Sistema de Educación Superior, Era de la Complejidad, Ley Orgánica de Educación Superior. Challenges of Higher Education System in Ecuador for the Age of ComplexityABSTRACTIn the last six years since the adoption of the Law on Higher Education in 2010, the Ecuadorian university has been exposed to new challenges compromising every institution participating in its management. This article analyzes seven of those challenges within the Law framework, the epistemological reflection and the goals presented as substantial in changing the cognitive, productive and service matrix in the country. The results are reflections by actors in the higher education system working at different levels of intervention, who propose immediate and mediate actions to achieve a University adaptive to the Age of Complexity.Keywords: Higher education system, age of complexity, Law of Higher Education.

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