Marrying social and technological innovation: Towards the triple social, green and digital transformation
There is a growing movement doing away with the unhelpful separation of technological and social innovation and combining the two perspectives in interesting ways. For instance, the current discussion around Industry 5.0 focusing on a human-centric, resilient and sustainable industry, or the European sectoral skills alliances which integrate social and non-technological aspects in the work programme of Horizon Europe (e.g. Processes for Planet). There are also regional and European-funded projects where actors from across the quadruple helix (engineers, social scientists, policy makers, companies and entrepreneurs, citizens and end users) collaborate to address societal challenges.
This broad topic was adressed in separate rounds, where Toni Caro, PhD and Antonius Schröder presented two topics:
- One for all and all for one: the Triple transition
- Minding the gap & an urgent call
Within this framework, Toni Caro, PhD, presented radically new forward-looking visions, principles, approaches, and action recommendations for an attuned indivisible social, green and triple transition. Using the metaphor and motto of the ‘The Three MoskEUteers: a One for All, All for One Triple Transition’. And discussed the ideas that a group of remarkable interdisciplinary and intersectoral co-authors have developed and published in the following chapter:
Caro-Gonzalez, A.; Serra, A; & Albala, X. (et al.) (2022). The Three MuskEUteers: Envisaging and pursuing a "One for all, All for one" triple transition: social, green and digital. In, Petrevska Nechkoska, R; Manceski G.; Poels, G.; Facilitation in Complexity (eds.) From creation to co-creation, from dreaming to co-dreaming, from evolution to co-evolution, Springer Nature. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-11065-8
Antonius Schröder presented the relevance of combining social and technological innovation. He emphasized the perspective of the new Industry 5.0 approach of the European Commission, highlighting a human-centric, sustainable and resilient industry. Based on several empirical EU funded projects, he briefly described the necessity and the challenges of a cooperation of social and technological innovators as well as the ecosystem and multi-stakeholder approach (e.g. the European Skills Alliances ESSA www.estep.eu/essa and SPIRE-SAIS www.spire2050.eu/sais) – all embedded in a social innovation process. Further information on this approach can be found in the following articles, one of which appeared in the Atlas of Social Innovation (Vol. 2). Both were written with the participation of Antonius Schröder:
Kohlgrüber, Michael; Schröder, Antonius (2019). Innovation Reloaded. The Social Character of Digitalisation in Industry. In: Jürgen Howaldt, Christoph Kaletka, Antonius Schröder und Marthe Zirngiebl (eds.) Atlas of Social Innovation. 2nd Volume: A World of New Practices. München: oekom verlag, S. 47–49. Kohlgrüber, Michael; Schröder, Antonius; Bayón Yusta, Félix; Arteaga Ayarza, Asier (2019). A new innovation paradigm. Combining technological and social innovation. In: Matériaux & Techniques 107 (1). DOI: 10.1051/mattech/2018065.
The 29 participants were invited to discuss each round in breakout rooms in smaller groups, moderated by Toni Caro, PhD, Antonius Schröder, Artur Serra, PhD and Adrian Götting.
Presentations:
Toni Caro: One for all and all for one: the Triple transition
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Antonius Schröder: Minding the gap & an urgent call