Analysis of Domain Intersection and Knowledge Evolution—The Development of the Fields of Social Innovation and Design Education

Abstract

This paper synthesizes the literature from the fields of design education and social innovation to obtain a complete understanding of the development of these fields’ knowledge, and it also compares and cross-analyzes the two fields to determine the entry point for combining the knowledge in both fields. Two types of bibliometric software were used to capture and classify the data, and descriptive statistical analysis, co-occurrence analysis of keywords, knowledge evolution analysis of studies cited in both fields, and burst analysis were conducted. The results reveal that integrating technology into the field of design education in combination with shifting the focus from enhancing students’ professional competence to enhancing their overall competence can contribute to the improvement of design education quality. This is in the context of empathy research becoming a trend. Furthermore, the field of social innovation defines “social innovation” as a mutual agreement between practice and theory to promote solutions to society’s problems. The research in this field covers all aspects of social life and has a complex disciplinary background. The field of social innovation is currently mostly concerned with the relationship between universities and social innovation practices. The burst analysis reveals that open innovation is becoming a common focus of both fields and is developing into a popular research topic.