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January 2013: Editorial by Jo Hochgerner

Stepping up to the European

School of Social Innovation:

Study programme M.A. in Social

Innovation starts in April

We appreciate increasing interest - internationally and in Au-

stria - in the initiative to create a European School of Social

Innovation, and concerning the study programme Master of

Arts in Social Innovation. The latter will start officially end of

April 2013 at the Danube University Krems (Austria).

Danube University Krems (DUK), in cooperation with the Cent-

re for Social Innovation, offers a worldwide unique master's

programme for post graduate study to develop innovations in

the public, business and civil society sectors. Graduates of the

M.A. in Social Innovation will be able to work in the deve-

lopment, planning and realisation of social transformation

processes in a wide variety of organisations or as individual

consultants and supervisors. Special emphasis is attached to

the importance of social media, which over the past years ha-

ve undergone a transformation from an accompanying instru-

ment to an engine of social innovation processes.

Target groups are executives, employees and freelancers, who

want to qualify for the invention, implementation, evaluation

and monitoring of social innovations in enterprises, public

institutions and other societal organisations like NGOs. Since

the DUK is a university of continuing education, students en-

rolled usually are mid-career academics seeking to advance or

to readjust their career path. In order to enable extra-

occupational studying, the programme will be delivered in a

blended learning mode, involving online distance learning and

face-to-face sessions at the Danube University in Krems. An

international faculty of scholars will be available to meet the

expectations of students from Austria, Europe and around the

world.

Launching this 5-term course of study represents a major step

in building up scientific and professional knowledge of social

innovation in the context of the fast growing relevance and

acceptance of the concept of social innovation. Together with

DUK and further partners from a variety of other Austrian and

European Universities (the first involved are from Germany

and Spain), ZSI will strive towards gradual establishment of the

European School of Social Innovation, realising joint program-

mes of study, summer schools, short term training program-

mes and international research collaboration.

Comments and enquiries pertaining to the European School

of Social Innovation (ESSI) as well as to the M.A. in Social Inno-

vation are cordially invited. We are looking for fellow champi-

ons of social innovation - and applications to the M.A. study

programme are welcome too!

Introducing Josef Hochgerner

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Josef Hochgerner is founder and scientific direc-tor of the Centre for Social Innovation in Vienna. He participa-ted as a a coordinator and partner in more than 30 EU projects and is an expert in the field of social partner organisations, of national and European agencies research and innovation. Hochgerner is teaching in the the context of vocational and adult education and lecturing at many European Universities: 1995-98 he was Professor at the University of Natural Re-sources and Life Sciences (BOKU), since 2007 at the University of Vienna; 2001-2005 Josef Hochgerner was President of the Austrian Society for Sociology. More recentky, he launched cooperation with the Danube University (DUK) the worldwide first Master of Arts in Social Innovation. Link www.donau-uni.ac.at/de/studium/master_of_social_innovation/index.php

Vol.1 January — February — March 2013

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February 2013: Editorial by Jo Hochgerner

Smart Cities

Cities with high 'IQ' and plenty of social innovations

The Smart City concept is important throughout Europe and across the world and thus a topic of international discourse. However, this short article primarily deals with matters of local developments in Vienna and Austria; readers from Austria may prefer the full version of the article in German.

At present, social innovation and everything considered 'smart' seems to be booming, one example of which can be seen by the fact that roughly 40% of all mobile phones sold by the end of 2012 were smartphones. According to the Europe 2020 Strategy, the European Union favors sustainable, inclusive and smart growth. Smart specialisation is supported in order to advance regional development, and has also complimented a rising interest in smart cities in the last several years.

The first world-wide ranking of smart cities was published by Boyd Cohen, an American climate strategist, in early 2012. It lists Vienna in top position, ahead of Toronto, Paris and New York City. This proves once more the high quality standards Vienna enjoys, after having been ranked most liveable city in the world during a number of consecutive years by Mercer. In a comparison of 70 mid-sized, European cities (populations be-tween 100,000 and 500,000), Linz, Salzburg, Innsbruck and Graz also fared well, taking places 9, 10, 12 and 13 (led by front-runners Luxemburg, Aarhus and Turku).

As with all rankings, exact positions are debatable, and there may be or will be studies producing different outcomes. Never-theless, Austrian cities obviously seem to be well off, appearing notably 'smart'. However, what in particular depicts a smart city? Austrian experts in urban research and spatial planning, lead by Rudolf Giffinger (Vienna University of Technology), who initiated and co-ordinated the research on the 70 European cities, define smart cites according to six specific characteris-tics. These characteristics are combined for analysis by ad-dressing a great number of specific factors and indicators (cf. the grafic design 'Smart City Wheel', by Boyd Cohen):

Smart People – embrace creativity, inclusive society, 21st century education

Smart Mobility – integrated ICT, prioritized clean and non-motorized options, mixed-modal access

Smart Living – culturally vibrant & happy, safe, healthy

Smart Environment – green buildings, green energy, green urban planning

Smart Economy – entrepreneur-ship and innovation, productivity, local & global interconnectedness

Smart Government – enabling supply & demand side policy, transparency and open data, ICT

& e-government Cities do not upgrade in 'intelligence' by smart technolgies alone. It rather is a matter of how technologies are implement-ed and used, depending on dominant social practices in the manifold and highly complex sub-systems a modern city con-sists of. In order to allow the unfolding of creativity, to facili-tate a vibrant culture, social inclusion, and education standards and qualities required, a particular culture of innovation is es-sential - ready to value and support social innovations just the same as their technical and commercial counterparts.

Social innovations favour new opportunities to act in the char-acteristic domains of smart cities, as there are smart people, mobility, living, environment, economy and government. In all sectors, new and effective practices become imperative to cope with existing and emerging societal challenges. In analogy to how J.A. Schumpeter conceptualised 'innovation' one hun-dred years ago, namely as 'new combinations of production factors', 'social innovations' may be conceived 'new combina-tions of social practices'.

New practices, e.g. mobility, may be changed bottom-up (for example by increased use of bicycles), or by setting novel norms top-down. A significant case of the latter is represented by the recent enforcement of parking space management (extending time zones with liability to pay to most parts of the city territory). Besides opening up fundamental new opportuni-ties or capabilities to act, re-combinations of existing practices may produce social innovations. A case of such re-combination of practices can be seen in the implementation of the city-bike system (in Vienna: 2003), which actually complements features of the smart city very well.

Mixed-modal access could become further improved by ex-tending the public transport system by introducing a city-car system, using a fully electric vehicle similarly like the city-bike system. City cars of this kind should belong to and serve as an extension of public transport. In this regard, Deutsche Bahn has tested an electric vehicle, developed with very special properties in Spain (Basque country), to supplement the Deutsche Bahn urban network in Berlin. Hiriko ('urban' in basque) is high-tech with regard to its development and per-formance on the one hand, yet low-tech concerning production and maintenance on the other. For parking it may even be fold-ed up, and can turn standing in circle (Video, 1:30 min.).

As outlined in my presentation at the GFF - Science Forum (with Federal Minister of Transport, Doris Bures), Hiriko could be a good choice for Austrian cities like Vienna, Linz, Salzburg, Innsbruck and Graz and could be helpful next steps in becom-ing even more of a smart city.

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Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?

Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

Excerpt from ‘The Rock’ by T.S Eliot in 1934

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March 2013 : Editorial by Christian Voigt

Science 2.0 and Social Innovation

Interview with Christian Voigt, Head of Technology & Knowledge

Science 2.0 has changed the working conditions of many re-

searchers. Besides specific academic networks, online collab-

oration tools and online bibliography services, as well as so-

cial media in general, have established new forms of produc-

tion, evaluation and distribution of knowledge. Science 2.0 –

introduced in 2008 by Ben Shneiderman of the University of

Maryland as an umbrella term – includes a wide variety of

applications, which aim to simplify processes in science and

research with the help of Web 2.0 and make them more

simple, transparent or participatory.

Science and research increasingly use the new

possibilities of Web 2.0. How does science or re-

search 2.0 differ from commercial fields?

Christian Voigt: Web 2.0 represents a sort of change of ver-

sion: In Web 1.0 there was a verifiable authorship, a central

author or a community of authors, which produced and pub-

lished content, similar to a book with static content. Web 2.0

provides an infrastructure, a framework for user input. Then

the content feed takes place. On the one hand the range of

perspectives grows, on the other hand this can be also seen

as a negative effect. You don’t know the author and the

source of content. This analogy can also be applied to the

field of research. Research is subject to powerful mecha-

nisms of authorization and distribution, which means who

may publish when, where and how. With the help of Web

2.0, researchers can introduce ideas relatively independent

of scientific publishers and leading magazines.

In the best case science and research 2.0 are

open, collaborative, participatory and mobile?

For example^, advanced features of distribution and new

formats of publication are exciting aspects. This means one

can easily enrich the core content with further presentations,

videos, audiocasts or records, spread the contributions in

virtual networks and develop discussions around the data. So

the publication becomes richer.

What are the limits of this new culture of feed-

back?

As researcher, basically one should consider when feedback

is helpful. For me, feedback has to do a lot with acceptance,

but also with the creation of knowledge. Sure, in some con-

texts it makes sense to exclude feedback options. Finally,

one must be aware that a lot of research is funded by the

public sector. In my opinion there is also a certain responsi-

bility of institutions to enter a public dialogue with funding

agencies. Dialogue means that feedback is desired. This cer-

tainly contributes to a more realistic attitude of research-

ers. Especially for applied sciences this can be beneficial. In

the field of basic research, this new culture of feedback is

more contentious. For example populist attacks, which fall

short and restrict the freedom of research, could have nega-

tive effects. In general, I assume that feedback provides use-

ful input. A key question for me is: Does my research get

better if I exchange knowledge and experience with potential

beneficiaries? Working with feedback should not be a sacri-

fice for a scientist.

Which tools do you use in everyday life of re-

search in the topical area Technology &

Knowledge of ZSI?

I am probably not a prototypical user of Web 2.0, but for

some time I tweet and run a blog on which I try to host a

more exhaustive discussion about my current research pro-

jects. Here readers find a different approach to my research.

My tweets are primarily value statements, for example I read

something interesting and share this information with my

followers. For me Twitter is also a kind of bookmarking sys-

tem.

Keyword bookmarking: Which bibliography man-

agement tools do you use?

I am currently working with EndNote, probably the pioneer

tool, but I would like to change to Zotero. This requires some

lead time, because the library and all data in the background

must be transferred, which is probably not possible without

„As researcher basically one should consider, when feedback is helpful. For me, feedback has to do a lot with acceptance, but also with the creation of knowledge.…“

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losses. Attaching professional networks is one aspect that

brings citation tools close to the field of research 2.0: In

themselves these are production tools with which the work

flow becomes faster and more efficient. But once references

are public, they also become a starting point for other ex-

perts. Via these references you can be identified with the

work of others, providing starting points for further ex-

change.

Which virtual networks do you use?

Mainly on Twitter and LinkedIn, in my experience the effort

is the lowest there. I've tested other specific academic net-

works such as Mendeley , Academia or Researchgate . One

should consider the added value. Research 2.0 must show

clearly what it brings. Only an increased effort of data entry

is certainly not helpful. The effort must have a positive effect

on the work. For example, there is a new, interesting service

for users of Academia. Since some time I receive mails with

information on who and how many people have read my

papers. That gives me an idea of what is relevant to people,

sometimes with surprising insights. One aspect of this feed-

back culture is that, as a researcher, you receive feedback

from the outside very quickly.

Which of the eight ongoing projects of the Tech-

nology & Knowledge Unit operates in the field of

research 2.0?

No project deals explicitly with research 2.0. When it comes

to understanding research as participatory projects, SOCIEN-

TIZE could be a good example. Here the public becomes part

of the research as a provider of input to various issues. This

concerns for example the measurement of temperature in

the public space, e.g. heat islands in cities, which can then be

monitored as units of streets.

A second aspect is the evaluation of raw data, which can also

be found in informally written forums. The project of TEL-

Map starts here and searches for trends. Also TEL-Map

works participatoryly. In addition to the analysis of top arti-

cles in specific journals, the project focuses on the analysis

of blogs, where exchange works more informal and embrac-

es more experimentation. In my research papers I am used

to presenting my hypotheses and my data and thesis, which

have been verified or not. Using a blog allows me as a re-

searcher to experiment more creatively with future develop-

ments.

We analyze this in the project on two levels. We ask: “Which

are common concerns and fears?" Concerning the subject of

technology and learning, you can quickly develop negative

scenarios, for example the image of a "transparent student",

who later may have difficulties to find a job because of a

negative grade, which was stored electronically and remains

accessible. Data develops a new constant persistence caused

by the possibilities of electronic storage.

TEL-Map aims to set trends regarding research efforts in the

field of E-learning and tries to raise awareness of political

decision makers for upcoming issues. The project supports

with analysis, agenda setting, disagreement management, as

well as road mapping.

For more than 20 years, the Centre for Social Innovation

(ZSI) has been a pioneer in the field of social innovation and

innovation research. In accordance with the claim of the ZSI

I like to ask: Are all innovations socially relevant?

Often innovation is seen equivalent with technical progress

and technocratic change, without questioning the social di-

mension of innovation. Social innovation is then perceived as

a side effect of innovation and not as an important aspect.

ZSI focuses on the social dimension of innovation and sup-

ports the visibility and relevance of this fact. In the topical

area of T&W, we frequently work in projects with teams of

hardcore technicians. This could work like this: Computer

scientists develop their tools and methods and we research

how these innovations will affect – hopefully in a positive

way - the life of users. When innovations are used in larger

communities, this could lead to positive systemic change.

For example: imagine a systemic change in how education is

evaluated. This would be a social innovation.

Introducing Christian Voigt

Dr. Christian Voigt is a senior researcher at the ZSI and became Head

of the Technology & Knowledge (Technik und Wissen, T&W) Unit in

2012 after eight years of successful research and teaching at the

University of South Australia (AU) and Koblenz-Landau (DE). His main

research interests focus on collaborative learning technologies and

evaluation of software solutions for institutions in the public sector.

More areas are socio-economic impact analysis of E-infrastructures.

Christian Voigt is project manager of the EU projects Stellar (Network

of Excellence in TEL) and TEL-Map (road-mapping the future of learn-

ing technologies).

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+++ 'Smart cities need social innovations': This special event took place on the 22nd of January 2013 at Novo-matic Forum in Vienna. Video available on Vimeo. +++ VERA: The project published the European Re-search Area Fabric Map. The report has been written by experts from the European Commission Joint Research-er Centre Institute for Prospective Technological Stud-ies, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research and ZSI. The report is available as a download www.zsi.at

+++ SEA-EU-NET: The project recently published an arti-cle on their activities with important players from and about South-East Asia in the journal "ASEAS - Öster-reichische Zeitschrift für Südostasienwissenschaften" The article is available as download. www.zsi.at

+++ The CE-Ageing Platform: The project released the

8th newsletter as well as a wall calendar. www.zsi.at

+++ The “GREEN PAPER CE-AGEING STRATEGY”

One of the core activities of the three-year project “Central

European Knowledge Platform for an Ageing Society” (short:

“CE-Ageing Platform”), co-funded by the CENTRAL EUROPE

Programme, is the development of the transnational CE-

Ageing Strategy aiming to serve as a joint strategic guideline

for the Central European countries and regions in order to

manage and adequately respond to the challenges of demo-

graphic change. In February 2013, the project consortium

proudly introduced the “GREEN PAPER CE-AGEING STRATE-

GY”, a 64-page comprehensive document providing links be-

tween most central policies and recommendations on

measures/actions. www.ce-ageing.eu

+++ Strategic Paper: Balanced Approaches for an Ageing

Workforce in Metropolitan Areas

The project Age-Work-Balance is dedicated to balanced ap-

proaches for an ageing labour force in urban areas and evalu-

ates measures, programs and projects that are aligned on the

integration of older people in order to discover success fac-

tors, especially with regard to the interface behind the pro-

ject and the network of relevant stakeholders. The strategy

paper summarizes the main findings and concludes with rec-

ommendations for local employment policy.

The paper is available as download (German). www.zsi.at

+++ "Challenge Social Innovation Potentials for Busi-

ness, Social Entrepreneurship, Welfare and Civil Society“

This book, edited by Hans-Werner Franz, Josef Hoch-

gerner and Jürgen Howaldt, is based on major contribu-

tions to the famous conference 'Challenge Social Inno-

vation' of September 2011, which immediately pro-

duced the influential 'Vienna Declaration: The Most Rel-

evant Topics in Social Innovation Research'.

Now a reader with 22 contributions on sections con-

cerning social innovation theory, social innovations in

the service sector, on social innovation and welfare, so-

cial entrepreneurship, workplace innovation, open inno-

vation and social media, measuring social innovation,

and on social innovation and the social sciences is avail-

able in bookshops and as an e-Book, published by

Springer.

There are two introductory notes (forewords) by Agnés

Hubert (BEPA/European Commission) and Antonella

Noya (OECD Forum on Social Innovations), highlighting

the relevance of concepts and practices of social innova-

tion on the one hand, and the commitments to Social

Innovation made by the Commission as part of the

EU2020 strategy and OECD's interest to 'go social to

give the people hope, confidence and perspectives' on

the other. The book includes contributions from ZSI au-

thors Alexander Degelsegger/Alexander Kesselring, and

Josef Hochgerner.

Available as e-Book and hard cover: www.springer.com

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Imprint

The ZSI Quarterly Summary assembles internationally relevant con-

tributions of recently published ZSI eJournals in English. This collec-

tion aims to spread information beyond the German speaking audi-

ence.

Editor: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Josef Hochgerner

Editorial Assistance: Pamela Bartar, William Wessling

Zentrum für Soziale Innovation (ZSI)

Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI)

Linke Wienzeile 246

Vienna , Austria

Contents & copyright

ZSI team of authors, 2013

www.zsi.at

VIDEO available on VIMEO www.vimeo.com

PEER - Digital peer learning for adults 50+! The motto, "Sapere aude!", which means: dare to be wise!, was created by the ancient philosopher Horace, and forms the foundations of the PEER project’s para-digm. Knowledge exchange between people is an effec-

tive way of learning, particularly in later life. We believe that 50+ platforms (online social platforms for adults aged 50+) offer tremendous potential for sustaining learning opportunities across the life course in later life.

www.peer-learning-50plus.eu

VIDEO available on VIMEO www.vimeo.com

Age Work Balance: Balanced approaches for an ageing workforce in metropolitan area The risk of long-term unemployment is generally higher for individuals in groups with structurally low labour market participation. Moreover setting up of the right incentives to work seems to be especially difficult for these specific groups. In several member states of the European Uniona-re positive measures in place to support those furthest from the labour market.

www.age-work-balance.metropolisnet.eu/project-description/

VIDEO available on VIMEO www.vimeo.com

FACETS of Social Innovation Vol 2. Smart cities need social innovations The event took place on 22nd of January 2013 at NOVOMATIC FORUM in Vienna and was hosted by GFF (Gesellschaft zur Förderung der For-schung). The keynote was given by Federal Minister Doris Bures (Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology). At the podium Josef Hochgerner (Scientific Director, ZSI), Gerald Bast (Rector of the University of Applied Arts, Vice-President of Universities Austria) and Wolfgang Knoll (Managing Director of the Austrian Institute of Technology, AIT) were talking about social innovation required to meet societal challenges in smart cities needs.