Waiting as a frontier: (Un)making patients for uterus transplantation in Denmark.

Exploring how picture-book instruction integrated with multicultural education influences students' learning motivation and international cognitive competence.

Whiria te Muka has been developed and tested multiple times over the past 5 years as a practical process for weaving change through systems.Drawing upon global futures thinking and our tikanga Maori, we have woven and tested a practical process toolkit that we would like to share.About Tokona te Raki Like the tokotoko of Tāne raising the heavens, Tokona's mahi is about raising ceilings of possibility — collaborating, experimenting, and developing indigenous frameworks that shift mindsets and rewire systems. Over a decade into that journey, Eruera leads a team with a strong and proven methodology — and an unshakeable belief that when we create the conditions for new light to emerge, the world becomes bright and full of potential. About the SpeakersDr Eruera TarenaNgāi Tahu (Ngāi Tūāhuriri), Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau-a-Apanui Eruera is Executive Director of Tokona te Raki — an indigenous social innovation lab designing workable solutions to complex social problems. Rooted in mātauranga Māori and grounded in Te Tiriti, Tokona believes in creating inclusive and cohesive communities based on fairness and justice, imagining an Aotearoa that rangatahi want to live in, return to, and contribute to. Awhina McGlincheyAwhina McGlinchey is Co-Lead of Tokona Te Raki. Growing up at her ūkaipō has had a huge impact on who she is and why she cares so deeply about creating real change for whānau, hapū, iwi, and wider communities. Growing and sharpening her skills within iwi and hapū spaces has provided solid experience in things like strategic planning, project work, community development, and bringing people together across multiple areas including education, emergency management and indigenous innovation.

ABSTRACT African Americans experience disparities in mental disease burden and mental health outcomes, yet they are less likely to engage in formal treatment than non-Hispanic whites and prefer help from clergy and informal supports instead. However, clergy often feel ill-equipped to address the mental health problems brought to them by congregants. This study applies social action theory (SAT) to the development and piloting of the Christ-Centered Mental Health Training Program, a novel faith-based mental health program focusing on group, congregation, and community-level change, by increasing mental health awareness and reducing stigma among African American pastors and their staffs to equip them to promote the positive mental health of their congregations. The community engagement and social innovation (CESI) model guided program development. A pilot study was conducted with eleven English-speaking African American congregation leaders to identify whether training curriculum objectives were met. Pre- and posttest surveys evaluated general mental health knowledge, knowledge of mental health in the Bible, ability to identify signs and symptoms of mental illness, and skills to refer to professional help, revealing self-reported gains across all objectives. Implications for future research suggest the need for further development and evaluation of church-based mental health promotion interventions for African Americans.

Civil society is crucial for societal transformation, but how its engagement can scale up and become institutionally embedded at the regional level remains widely unclear. We enhance the knowledge in this area by linking civic engagement with transformative social innovation (TSI) research. Our aim is to understand how cognitive, social, institutional, organizational and geographical proximity factors strengthen and hinder civic-led TSI initiatives by applying the proximity approach. The object of this case study was the ‘Mitmach-Region Saale-Holzland-Kreis’, an initiative which aims to establish mutual cooperation at a regional level based on solidarity and ‘commoning’. We found that engagement was based primarily on cognitive proximity, whereas organizational distance was the biggest hurdle, also suppressing positive effects from cognitive proximity. We also, most importantly, discovered that contributing to societal transformation played a role in a participant’s engagement, but was particularly suppressed by missing institutional proximity through disapproval from society or the immediate environment. Altogether, strengthening the proximities to promote engagement in civic-led TSI initiatives holds great potential for contributing to societal transformation.

ABSTRACT While much of the research on social innovation in developing contexts focuses on the process and how it creates value, less is known about how social innovators navigate paradoxes arising from institutional and socio-cultural conditions to empower communities and drive change. This article seeks to reshape understanding of social innovation processes by utilising the social-symbolic work theory to demonstrate how social innovation occurs at the intersection of international development agendas and local development needs. To address the research question, we draw on a qualitative research method focusing on a case study of the ‘MSI Ladies’ initiative, a programme developed by the global NGO MSI Reproductive Choices to train and support community-based midwives and nurses – locally known as the ‘ladies’ – in delivering crucial sexual and reproductive healthcare across remote regions. We theorise these actors as ‘social-symbolic social innovators’ who overcome challenges to empower underprivileged women in west/central Africa and southeast Asia to access services. Our study highlights the crucial role of these community midwives, acting as either ‘boundary spanners’ or ‘social innovators’ in overcoming institutional paradoxes and co-creating social-symbolic work through their shared identity, agency and goals. The study further suggests that state actors can play a constructive role in enabling social-symbolic social innovation by legitimising and supporting locally embedded intermediaries who translate between institutional layers.

BackgroundWe know little about how non-profit organizations create the conditions within their communities that support sustainable change – a process that has been referred to as scaling deep. In this paper we explore the implementation of a volunteer community-based navigation program, within 46 community-based organizations, to better understand how organizations seek to create the cultural and relational conditions to support sustainable change.ObjectiveTo examine the strategies organizations used to scale deeply during a volunteer navigation (Nav-CARE) program implementation.DesignQualitative descriptive interview study.MethodsA qualitative descriptive study using semi-structured interviews conducted with key informants (n=30) exploring approaches used to scale deeply during program implementation.ResultsInformants described ways in which they raised the visibility of the program, used mindful messaging, deepened relationships, and expanded the possibilities of their organizational mandate. Community-specific dissemination strategies and a heavy emphasis on face-to-face interpersonal interactions were integral to raising program visibility. Messaging was sensitive to cultural and historical tensions, avoided negative or needs-based language, emphasized strength-based volunteer recruitment and drew upon ideas of collaboration rather than competition. Developing trust at all levels, both within and beyond the organization, was foundational to deepening relationships. Providing practical assistance, becoming a connecting point to other community partners, and demonstrating how they were driving policy change were important to expanding the possibilities of their organizational mandate.ConclusionScaling deep for these organizations went beyond changing values and beliefs specific to the innovation. Rather, these organizations focused at a more fundamental level on: developing relationships of trust within and beyond their organization, emphasizing that community members needed one another, and demonstrating that their organization had a vital contribution to the overall well-being of the community. Such an approach had important implications for how organizations must “play the long-game” to effectively scale and embed social innovation.

ABSTRACT The article discusses the role of social innovation practices in their relationship with public institutions. The research presents an in-depth analysis of civic actions promoting social innovation in Turin (Italy). In the last few decades, the city has been praised as an example of urban regeneration characterized by a collaborative framework between self-organized initiatives and public authorities. The paper discusses the definition of social innovation and its features in an evolving context, presenting the challenges that these practices face. A grounded methodological approach is proposed, defining the term, which is always situated within the socio-material processes in which it is immersed.

Participation in physical activity (PA) is essential for maintaining health and mobility. Although women, individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds, and people experiencing vision loss are reportedly the least active of their respective identity classifications literature is yet to acknowledge the intersectional nature of group identification, and the ways in which barriers and facilitators to PA might vary or compound in instances of multiple-minority status. Fifteen people with vision loss (six male) from different cultural backgrounds (six White: nine South Asian) were interviewed. Reflexive thematic analysis, underpinned by an interpretivist epistemology and relativist ontology, was used to analyse data. Participants identified neglect at a governmental level as the most significant barrier to PA, producing inaccessible environments that are infrastructurally inequitable. Female South Asian participants' barriers to PA were nuanced by the intersectionality of their multiple identity positioning (gender, race, and disability). The cultural expectations placed on South Asian women, specifically those pertaining to modesty and gender, limited their capacity to engage in a physically active lifestyle. Comparisons made between the experiences of White and South Asian participants highlighted a lack of acceptance towards disabled individuals in the South Asian community. This study provided insight as to how experiences of inequality intersect and require holistic means of intervention. Governmental bodies and social innovators should strive to create spaces which are architecturally appropriate for people with vision loss, and work with sporting facilities such as gyms to centralise marginalised communities in their design to provide services which are both accessible and culturally viable.

Institutional infrastructure for social innovation: The case of Mexico

Social innovation and sustainability competencies. Multivariate evidence using PLS-SEM in the context of higher education

Integrating social, technological, and policy innovations for sustainable urban renovation in heritage-sensitive contexts: The transdisciplinary approach of DeCO2

In today`s modern industrial societies, economy, prosperity, and well-being are resource-intensive and often shaped neither socially nor ecologically responsibly:. To follow the normative guidelines of sustainable development in an increasingly complex society, a more sustainable way of doing business is required. This depends on the motives of the actors in the economic equation of supply and demand. Therefore, the study focused on the micro-perspective of individual sustainably operating innovation actors. The goal was to derive trends in the underlying values and orientations of these actors (supply side) and to identify factors that have the potential to foster an innovation climate for an accelerated, more sustainable economy. Despite the diversity of sectors (ranging from agriculture and transport to industry), the results show central trends in the commonalities: Contrary to a purely techno-functional logic of innovation, these innovations emerge in strong, network-based cooperations founded on collective learning processes and shared values. The differences lie primarily in the innovation focus – from social and organizational innovations that question existing market logics, to technological and digital innovations for enhancing the efficiency of established industries.

• Cycling activist initiatives build leadership and routines that sustain credibility across political cycles. • Professionalised activist associations gain access to urban transport planning processes, but they also face new bureaucratic demands. • Data functions as a pedagogical tool, making cycling patterns legible—and harder to ignore. • Alliances with universities and civil society groups translate activism into policy influence. • Upscaling illustrates how niches begin to interact with regimes through evidence, coalitions, and guarded engagement. Pro-cycling associations in Brazil offer a new perspective on how social innovations emerge within car-dependent mobility regimes. This paper examines how internal organisational capacities and wider governance conditions shape the upscaling of cycling-related practices and values promoted by six activist associations in Brazilian cities. The study reveals that early niche consolidation relied on seven mechanisms and scope conditions: shared and diversified leadership; professionalisation and efforts to broaden representation; evidence-driven advocacy; coalition brokering; technical co-production with insiders; and guarded engagement in volatile political settings. These mechanisms refine and nuance our understanding of early niche–regime interaction in the Global South by highlighting how "protected spaces" are actively constructed through organisational routines, translocal learning and the work of making cyclists legible within planning and regulatory arenas.

The rapid emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has unveiled the clinical, public health, and economic value of Canada's health data assets. However, the Canadian industry developing technologies to improve the standard and quality of Canadian healthcare has limited, and often dysfunctional, access to data. The eighth principle of the Pan-Canadian Health Data Charter calls for data-driven social and technological innovation through partnership, invention, discovery, value creation, and international best practice. Trustworthy and efficient innovation data access is essential for realizing a data ecosystem that improves the health and clinical outcomes for Canadians. This article examines the innovation data access landscape in Canada and identifies structural and cultural challenges. It proposes governance mechanisms in the context of current legislation to address challenges and promote trust in ethical data use while looking internationally for inspiration, and reinforces that achieving the eighth principle is structurally dependant on addressing the other nine in turn.

How can designers assess the social impact of their practices? The objective of the paper is to provide the foundations for the adoption of impact assessment and evaluation, especially the social one, into design practices. The paper provides an exploration of the possibilities for assessing design initiatives, the existing connections, main contributions and the potential implications for design practitioners and researchers. After a general introduction to impact assessment and evaluation, it provides an overview of what it means to assess and evaluate impact, an overview of the state of the art of Impact Assessment over the social dimension in the Design practice and research, and finally it proposes a framework for navigating, selecting, and adopting impact assessment methods and approaches in design projects. Three directions emerge: Impact Assessment for Product/Service Design, for Design for Social Innovation and for Design for Policy Making.

ABSTRACT Social entrepreneurship has increasingly intensified as an alternative innovation to social provision in the last decade, largely because the development of public services is often considered rudimentary. Drawing on 27 interview data from 13 institutionalized social entrepreneurship (ISE) initiatives across Indonesia, we compared how ISE is adapted between state-driven and corporate-driven initiatives and improves service delivery, overcomes financial constraints, and enhances organizational management from a service provider-user perspective. Findings indicate that ISE can provide efficient solutions to social problems at lower governance layers, such as villages and hamlets. This is also chiefly because there is less division of labour at the low governance levels, which means that ties are assembled in informal networks. The strong ties within community relationships influence community leaders’ motivation to promote ISE, even if it means maintaining political domination and patron-client interests. Conversely, at higher levels of government – specifically central and provincial tiers – ISE initiatives tend to lose their relevance to targeted communities due to complex procedural and bureaucratic modulations. This article contributes to the discussions on context-specific factors shaping Collaborative Public Sector Innovation (CPSI), particularly the roles of informal networks and local power dynamics in fostering social innovation and expected impact.

BackgroundHepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) are significant global health concerns, particularly prevalent in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In China, a significant number of international migrants from LMICs reside, many of whom are at high risk of HBV and HCV infection, while this group tends to engage in low HBV and HCV test use due to some adverse factors. Pay-it-forward (PIF) is a social innovation strategy that is based on the theories of upstream reciprocity and mutual aid. Previous studies have shown that the PIF strategy has proven effective in promoting sexually transmitted infections (STIs) testing in various populations.ObjectiveThis study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a PIF intervention in promoting HBV and HCV testing among international migrants from LMICs in China.MethodsA 2-arm cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be conducted in Guangzhou, China. Participants will be recruited from a public hospital serving a large migrant community. A total of 100 eligible participants will be enrolled in blocks of 5 using a cluster randomization plan and randomly assigned to either the PIF intervention arm or the control arm in a 1:1 ratio. Participants in the intervention arm will watch a 2-minute video introducing the PIF concept and receive printed educational materials on HBV and HCV. Participants will then be offered free testing donated by previous participants, which they can accept or decline, and an opportunity to make a monetary donation to cover testing for a future participant. Control arm participants will receive standard medical services, with self-paid testing. The primary outcome is the proportion of participants tested for both HBV and HCV. Data will be collected through a self-administered questionnaire, and test information will be obtained from the hospital’s medical records without personally identifiable information. The survey data will be analyzed using generalized estimating equations to account for clustering effects.ResultsThis protocol was completed in August 2024, and implementation was conducted from September 2024 to February 2025. According to the baseline survey findings, 73.0% (73/100) of the 100 eligible participants recruited were male, 87.0% (87/100) were from African countries, and 85.0% (85/100) came to China for business purposes. About 40.0% (40/100) earned more than US $1100 per month, 62.0% (62/100) were married, and 6% (6/100) had both stable and casual sexual partners.ConclusionsThis study is innovative in targeting international migrants from LMICs in China and using the PIF strategy to promote HBV and HCV testing. The PIF intervention is expected to increase testing rates by addressing financial barriers and fostering community support. The findings will contribute to the understanding of HBV and HCV testing promotion among this understudied population, with potential implications for public health policy and practice.

Over 40 percent of the global population lives in rural areas, making rural issues central to debates on development and sustainability. Yet, rural studies have long been dominated by urban-centered, representational perspectives that overlook how rurality is materially and relationally practiced in everyday life. This article draws on more than three years of participatory action research in a remote village on China’s southwestern frontier, documenting the cocreation of household gardens by local people and a group of rural geographers. These gardens transformed household spaces by layering productive, aesthetic, and ecological functions onto traditional farming landscapes, while also reshaping relations among households, the village, and external actors, giving rise to a hybrid form of rurality. By materializing these changes in marginal settings, this study reveals how participatory action research enables the coproduction of rural knowledge and highlights remote villages as sites of social innovation with broader relevance for the Global South.

Abstract Sustainable development requires not only clear and measurable goals but also adaptive processes capable of responding to evolving societal challenges. This article proposes a conceptual model that integrates goal-based and process-based perspectives by institutionalizing the social innovation process within non-profit organizations. The model illustrates how enhancing absorptive capacity and embedding iterative learning mechanisms enable non-profit organizations to design, implement, scale, and adapt interventions aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals. Using Causal Loop Diagramming Analysis, the study highlights the dynamic feedback structures that support systemic change. The model offers a novel strategic lens for understanding how nonprofit-driven social innovation can contribute to sustainable development and provides a foundation for future empirical research. It also has significant theoretical, practical, and regulatory implications.