Research
The Esade Institute for Social Innovation acts as agents of knowledge, developing meaningful research in order to understand the challenges faced by our society and their possible solutions and alternatives.
The Institute is a research center (GRRSE), recognized by the AGAUR, which focuses both academic research and other activities around studying, raising awareness of and contributing to the design and development of initiatives related with various social players. We wish to add our voice to the proposal of political, social and organizational alternatives to meet the challenges raised by highly complex phenomena, such as climate change, inequality, discrimination, precarious working conditions, access to housing, the social challenges caused by migration, and digitization.
Our work focuses on five broad areas:
1. Innovation for social and environmental challenges
Social innovation has an essential part to play in overcoming the current and/or long-term social and environmental challenges. Social innovation brings new strategies, actions and projects which look to a future in which priority is given to the communal over the individual, where social impact is the principal objective, and personal gain is always a consequence of what has first been constructed collectively.
Social innovation comes from many actors and sectors that contribute to the search for solutions to social and environmental challenges, using their distinctive competencies to provide a response with a high social impact. They do not seek to replace the role of the State, nor is this an exercise of social responsibility on the part of companies. Their objective is to transform and their priority is to respond to some shared social challenges. At the Institute for Social Innovation, we set out to spread knowledge about social innovation and to help promote transformation for the common good and social justice.
2. Ways to address exclusion, precariousness and vulnerability
Academics, politicians and professionals from different fields have condemned the fact that dynamics of exclusion and precariousness have appeared in our societies and are becoming more acute. Increasing numbers of people are being driven away from their life project, the employment market and housing. Furthermore, gender, racial and digital inequalities are starting to show themselves under new guises.
In contrast to this harsh reality, we may also observe a large number of innovative initiatives which, in opposition to this structural violence, are demanding dignity, fighting to create more inclusive institutions and striving to build a more habitable world. The Institute for Social Innovation seeks to favor an ethnographic perspective in all its actions, and to focus its analysis on people and the social impact achieved by the actions of different players.
3. Transformation and social impact through cross-sector collaboration
We live in an age in which there are many social challenges, and it is difficult for a single actor to tackle and resolve these. Cross-sector collaboration would appear to be crucial when facing certain problems in our society. Therefore, there are an increasing number of initiatives of this kind in which actors from different sectors join forces to work together, applying their different and complementary expertise with a common objective.
At the Institute for Social Innovation, we aim to make an in-depth study of the scope of the collaborations between NGOs, companies and public administration, and to draw lessons from different innovative experiences that have had a high social impact.
4. Models of responsible leadership and social leadership
Responsible and social leadership has become an essential lever that all organizations must take into consideration if they wish to achieve their aims. We understand leadership as the development of the personal and organizational capacities for driving a social or environmental project, presenting a shared vision of this project and promoting values and attitudes for transformation.
For this purpose, organizations need dynamic leaders with the capacity to manage crisis situations effectively and face new challenges, develop organizational capacities, foster innovation and continually rewrite the rules of the game. Through its actions, the Institute seeks to place the spotlight on people as agents of change from within organizations and civil society.
5. New challenges of applied ethics in the digital, social and business environment
Applied ethics seeks to evaluate the humanistic background of the different traditions of thought, in order to provide a specific response to the question: How should we act? Unlike more abstract philosophy, applied ethics asks people questions and urges them to examine the consequences of their actions on society and on the planet.
In its training programs, research work and social debate activities, the Institute for Social Innovation aims to stimulate reflection on how we may advance towards a model of society that is more inclusive and more respectful of our environment. The objective here is to question management models that view people and the environment as mere instruments for maximizing profit, and in this way open up paths that lead to the creation of proposals focused on the common good.
Featured projects
Antenna for Social Innovation
This antenna picks up the most promising signals from people at the cutting edge of social transformation.
Esade-PwC Social Leadership Program
A combined effort by the Institute of Social Innovation and the PwC Foundation designed to generate and disseminate knowledge about leadership in NGOs and other non-profit organizations.
Decent Housing Observatory
The observatory focuses on analyzing and raising awareness about housing, and encouraging knowledge and discussion.
The transition to a low-carbon economy
A research project that addresses corporate sustainability challenges in order to combat climate change in different economic sectors.
EXPAND
A challenge-oriented, idea-acceleration program that addresses complex social issues, and a toolbox enabling university students and teachers to apply the same methodology.
Regenerate Project
Regenerative business practices and governance: A longitudinal study of regenerative agriculture in Spain.
Waterclimate Project
Collaborative environmental governance organizations in the face of climate change.
Recover Project
Regeneration, collaboration and governance: a longitudinal study of regenerative agriculture in Spain.
Research areas
Social Innovation Institute Research Group
GRIIS conducts research on management change to improve businesses' social and environmental impacts, leading to different types of research and companies assuming new responsibilities.
Academic Publications
The Institute’s team regularly publish in leading academic journals, creating relevant and impactful knowledge for the classroom, the management community, organizations and society at large.
Social Research Seminars
Research seminars in which researchers, faculty and doctoral students meet with leading researchers from international academic institutions to discuss in depth the various social and scientific issues they are working on.
Ethnographic Workshops
Each year, the Institute organizes this workshop in order to offer, through the active participation of the participants, another vision and way of approaching reality, seeking to observe, listen and understand what the world is like for those who have lived in certain contexts.
PhD Community
Every year, professionals from around the word enroll on Esade research programs, including its MRes in Management Sciences and PhD in Management Sciences, with the support and collaboration of the Institute’s team.
“Centres Mash-up” Meetings
Every year, the Esade Institute for Social Innovation, the University of Bath School of Management (Centre for Business, Organisations and Society) and the Copenhagen Business School (CBS Sustainability) organize a series of get-togethers to talk about each of the center’s different research projects and skill development and teaching initiatives.