Special Issue on Unfolding New Social Innovations for a New Digital Era

A new digital era is changing innovation dynamics, nature and forms of social innovation. Unstoppable advances of emerging and converging technologies and the “next normal” environment are adding complexity, opportunities and risks to social innovation. This special issue calls for papers to advance research on how digital transformation is shaping pathways to develop new social innovations and a more comprehensive understanding of innovation.

Topics Covered

These include, but are not limited to:

• How do organisations from all sectors generate social innovations facing fast digitalsation and the “next normal” environment? What new capabilities are required?
• What shifts occur in social needs in the “next normal” and how can they be addressed with the support of digital technologies? What are the differences between developed and developing economies?
• How do high-tech, emerging and converging technologies interrelate with social innovation? (e.g., social fin-tech, blockchain and innovation commons, digital social innovation and free innovation). What is their impact on the measurement of social innovation? (e.g., use of Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, blockchain).
• Which novel social innovations are being created across formal and informal economy sectors? (e.g., blockchain and social economy; emerging technologies in sharing, green, blue, silver, orange and GIG economies).
• How is digitalisation affecting cross-sectoral collaboration, social innovation processes, scaling and governance models?
• What is the role of policy regulations related to digitalisation and future social innovations (e.g., IP rights, health, safety, labour market and privacy)?
• How can digitalisation contribute to new forms of power and democratic participation? (e.g., decentralised Internet and private blockchain, digital social currency).
• What is the impact of emergent digital cultures and institutionalisation of digital socio-cultural practices?
• How is social investment changing by digitalisation? (e.g., digital social incubators and accelerators, blockchain in crowd-funding and peer-to-peer lending).

Submission Deadline

Please submit your paper before 31 December 2021.

Submission Instructions

Mansuscripts should be submitted via the online submission system. Manuscripts meeting the scope of the special issue will be published open access after a fast-track review process. The article publishing charge (APC) will be waived.

Guest Editor

Mónica Edwards-Schachter

• European School of Social Innovation (ESSI)
• Lecturer of Creativity and Design Thinking, Pos-graduate Program, University of Burgos, Spain
• Research Interests: Social innovation; sustainability; hybrid innovation; humanization of technology; cross-sectoral innovation; value co-creation; innovation labs & hubs; STEAM education; soft skills