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Hesiod Poject Papers Papers are available on the website www.hesiod.eu Heritage and Social Innovation Observatory (HESIOD) presentation J. Fernández Fernández University of Oxford & UCL Institute of Archaeology Introduction Social innovation are new ideas or processes (products, services and The Heritage and Social Innova- models) that meet various social needs tion Observatory (HESIOD) is a platform (more effectively than other alternatives) aiming to identify, analyse, give visibility and contribute as well to the creation of and disseminate socially innovative ex- new relationships and/or collaborations. periences in the fjeld of cultural heritage: Therefore new means of organisation museums, collaborative projects, inno- and interactions are involved in order vation labs, community centres, shared to respond to society’s problems and workspaces, co-creation, co-production, needs. In other words, these are good crowdsourcing and crowdfunding pro- innovations for society, improving at cesses, etc. Also it seeks to serve as a the same its capacity to act (European platform to connect the community of Union, 2013; Tepsie, 2014; Murray, Cau- social innovators in this sector and facili- lier-Grice and Mulgan, 2010). However, tate their cooperation. despite the growing use of this concept, Does the Cultural Heritage con- there is no unifjed defjnition to it as yet. tribute to create social innovations? To Anyway, a static defjnition of this con - which extent? Are the organisations in cept would contravene its own dynamic, charge of the Cultural Heritage mana- changing and adaptable nature (Euro- gement socially innovative? To which pean Union, 2013). More likely it would extent? How could they become more be a question of fjnding common deno - innovative? Who innovates and whe- minators for the defjnition and analysis re? These are some of the questions for of the social innovation processes, such which we are still seeking for an answer. as: satisfying social needs, promoting changes in the behaviour of society and What is social innovation? generating new forms of governance, bearing in mind the emergence of a new The main consequence of the philosophy of production, beyond the di- actual economical and social crisis is chotomy between public-private sector. a progressive erosion of the Welfare In the fjeld of cultural heritage, we State. The growing importance that so- use the term Social Innovation when the cial innovation as a concept represents following factors meet: nowadays cannot be understood without taking into consideration this grim evi- 1. New solutions – products, servi- dence. Hence, in less than a decade ces, models, processes – are created Social Innovation is more and more pre- complying best with the objectives of sent in the public sector agendas. conservation, management, dissemina- 1

tion, defence or enhancement of cultural society. That is why the social innovation heritage. concept can easily have a function as a 2. Social needs are met, such as new frame for refmection, around which the access to: education, science and we must reconsider our cultural heritage knowledge, culture, quality and non-offs- management models and aim to a sys- horing employment, new technologies, temic and integral social amelioration. participation and democracy, environ- In order to transform the cultural herita- mental conservation, sustainable de- ge sector in a strategic space for social velopment, social inclusion, integration innovation, it is necessary to reinforce its and gender equality. collaborative character, where all the pri- 3. New types of relationships are vate, public and non-profjt organisations created, improving the society’s capaci- may act in a smooth, joint and positive ty to act. It incorporates itself to the citi- manner. zenship as an active agent in innovation It is only possible to create dy- processes. namics that can solve problems both quickly and effjciently bearing in mind Does the cultural heritage sector ge- our experiences in common. Thus, the nerate social innovations? leadership of citizens and their organi- sations hitherto scarcely involved in the No doubt it has created social decision making and management of innovations long before the invention collective resources is fundamental. of this new concept. Museums are an example, and their contribution to edu- But, how can one alalyse and measu- cation and to improve the quality of life re social innovation? of society is a well known fact. However new times require changes and adap- This task is not an easy one. We tations, which are becoming more and lack theoretical approaches and a solid more urgent and, at this juncture, it is analytical tradition (Sinnergiak, 2013). diffjcult to know the real role that cultural Therefore, we are compelled for the heritage is playing for the new needs of time being to apply experimental analy- 2

sis and methodologies in different fjelds, more visible, they can be interconnec- as for instance cultural heritage. ted, cooperate, create networking and The variables necessary to analy- share experiences. se social innovations are fjve according • Disseminate . Enter the debate to Buckland and Murillo (2013): social on cultural heritage and social innova- impact, economic sustainability, type of tion in the society and academic world, innovation, intersectorial collaboration by means of organising and participating and its scalability and replicability. From in conferences and scientifjc meetings these variables, we have created a pro- totype poll focused on creating a fjrst ge - References neral framework of refmection and analy - Buckland, H, and Murillo, D. (2013): Vías hacia el cambio sis about social innovation in the fjeld of sistémico. Ejemplos y variables para la Innovación Social . cultural heritage. Instituto de Innovación Social de ESADE. European Union (2013): “Social innovation research in the How can one collaborate with HE- European Union Approaches, fjndings and future directions”. Policy Review . Accessible in: https://ec.europa.eu/research/ SIOD social-sciences/pdf/policy_reviews/social_innovation.pdf Sinnergiak (2013): Regional Social Innovation Index: Un In order to collaborate with HE- índice regional para medir la innovación socia l. Donostia: SIOD it is only necessary to complete a Innobasque. Accessible in www.sinnergiak.org. questionnaire. Estimated time for com- Tepsie (2014): Social Innovation theory and research. A Gui- de for Researchers . Accessible in: http://www.tepsie.eu/ima- pletion is about 15 minutes (accesible ges/documents/research_report_fjnal_web.pdf in http://www.hesiod.eu). The data pro- Murray, R., Caulier-Grice, j., Mulgan, G. (2010). The Open vided will be integrated on a map under Book of Social Innovation . The Young Foundation y Nes- a Creative Commons licence. The aim is ta. Accessible in: http://youngfoundation.org/wp-content/ uploads/2012/10/The-Open-Book-of-Social-Innovationg.pdf to build an online platform through which organisations or socially innovative pro- jects become more visible, they can be interconnected, cooperate, implement Published on 20 October 2015 networking and share experiences. Accesible in: http://hesiod.eu/heritage-social-innovation- observatory/ The HESIOD aims • Obtain data . Conduct a basic research through questionnaires, fjeld - work and case studies in order to know where, how and who innovates socially in the fjeld of cultural heritage. • Mapping and analysis . Move to an online map this information to have a geographical analysis tool. Ca- rry out comparative studies between different cases, regions or countries, thus enabling us to refmect more broadly about social innovation in this sector and measure its scope. • Build a community of innova- tors . Create an online platform through which socially innovative initiatives are 3