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The Social Innovation Lab: An Experiment in the Pedagogy of Institutional Work

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The Business of Social and Environmental Innovation

Abstract

The Social Innovation Lab is a pedagogical experiment within the MBA programme of the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business. Exploring social innovation through the lens of institutional work, the Lab asks participants, who have not formerly identified themselves as social change agents, to begin to think and act like system innovators. The Lab develops an action heuristic by drawing on research in the fields of institutional theory, positive organizational scholarship, critical pedagogy, network theory, and stakeholder engagement, among others. This heuristic focuses on shifting from a corrective action lens to a transformative action lens. Using this lens, Lab participants engage in real-world, real-time social innovation projects of their own devising.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town, Portswood Road, Green Point, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa

    Warren Nilsson & Eliada Wosu Griffin-EL

  2. Bertha Centre of Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town, Portswood Road, Green Point, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa

    Francois Bonnici

Authors
  1. Warren Nilsson
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  2. Francois Bonnici
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  3. Eliada Wosu Griffin-EL
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Warren Nilsson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Business University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Verena Bitzer

  2. Graduate School of Business University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Ralph Hamann

  3. Graduate School of Business University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Martin Hall

  4. Graduate School of Business University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Eliada Wosu Griffin-EL

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Nilsson, W., Bonnici, F., Griffin-EL, E.W. (2015). The Social Innovation Lab: An Experiment in the Pedagogy of Institutional Work. In: Bitzer, V., Hamann, R., Hall, M., Griffin-EL, E. (eds) The Business of Social and Environmental Innovation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04051-6_11

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