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SOCIAL INNOVATION – TOOLS FOR SOCIAL CHANGE

** Not running in 2023/24 **

Why should I take this Trinity Elective?

"We need a whole new way of thinking.” Greta Thunberg, 21 February 2019

Whether you want to change the world, or help make your neighbourhood a better place to live, your desire to make a difference needs to be matched with knowledge and skills. Social innovation is the process of developing and implementing effective solutions to social and environmental issues. If you are committed to a whole new way of thinking, if you want to understand how processes of social innovation work and develop yourself to play a role, this is the Trinity Elective for you.

What will I learn?

  • You will learn about the process of social innovation, and how do develop and work within a temporary innovation system.
  • You will learn how processes of social innovation are used to address key societal challenges. We will focus in 2019-21 on housing and homelessness, and development of nature based solutions for sustainable cities. 
  • You will learn how to engage with key individuals within the fields of social innovation and social change in Ireland and abroad, including academics, practitioners and activists, and record and disseminate your interaction with them.

What will I do?

  • Attend a series of lectures with Irish and international experts on social innovation that will immerse you in the complexity of societal challenges and effective approaches to addressing them. 
  • Engage in workshops, run using action learning methodology, in which you will be part of a mixed discipline team.
  • Develop individual and group skills in socially innovative action to address societal challenges, in consultation with individual and team mentors.
  • Communicate what you learn through presentations, video and blogs.

How will this be delivered?

  • 11 hours of lectures
  • 22 hours of workshops, both online and in classroom
  • 20 hours of advance reading
  • 15 hours of individual assessment preparation
  • 30 hours of group assessment preparation

How will this be assessed?

100% continuous assessment - 50% Individual, 50% group

  • Individual assessment (50%)
    • You will identify and contact an expert in your focal topic area, record a three minute video made about/with that person, write up a blog entry about what you learned from them and post both on the course website.

  • Team Assessment (50%)
    • Your team will write up a five page report give a presentation to the class on your course learning, and produce a five minute video about your course work, oriented towards non-academics interested in social innovation and social change. 

Who can take this Trinity Elective?

  • Any student eligible to take a Trinity Elective can select this Trinity Elective except for the students from the following programmes: Business, Business and Language, Business and Computer Science, Law and Business, BESS.

More Information (PDF 195KB)