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Social Innovation or Transformative Change ?
Budd L Hall, U of Victoria and Cristina Esgrigas GUNi,
International Association of Universities
Montreal May 7 and 8, 2015

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What I will talk aboutWhat I will talk about
Introduction and acknowledgements
Social innovation: a disquieting conversation
Knowledge, Engagement and Higher Education
Contributing to Social Change- The World Report
on Higher Education

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Social InnovationSocial Innovation
Silent on power imbalances, organizing and
political action, the dominance of colonized
knowledge systems
 Calls for co-optation rather than collaboration,
‘bigger is better, solving problems not building
community capacity to find solutions and a serial
avoidance of politics
But 80 people will have the same amount of
wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion people
Piketty on Inequality and Capitalism

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If higher education takes itsIf higher education takes its
role seriously as an instrument of social
responsibility and knowledge democracy,
of studying the deep obstacles to global
well being and of understanding the
processes of challenging injustice,
environmental pillage and greed, then we
need to release the energies of
transformative change.


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• GUNi is an international network supported by
UNESCO, the United Nations University (UNU)
and the Association of Catalan Public
Universities (ACUP).
• The Report is a collective work.
» 73 authors from 34 countries of the world regions have
contributed to this edition.
• Dr. Rajesh Tandon and Dr. Budd Hall have been
the guest editors.
• Is a product of three years research,
consultations, academic seminars and an
international conference in 2013.
5 Higher Education in the World Report
Knowledge, Engagement and Higher Education:
Contributing to Social Change

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Higher Education in the World 5 aims to:
a) Analyze the concept of community university engagement and social
responsibility.
b) Provide a regional and thematic map about how HEIs are engaged with
society.
c) Identify how the social actors are involved in the engagement practices,
including leadership, participation and decision making process.
d) Propose steps for advancing the contribution of CUE.
e) Offer a toolbox for higher education practitioners through examples of
good practices and resources to move forward.

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Community–University EngagementCommunity–University Engagement
Community-University
engagement (CUE) is
multidimensional umbrella term
that describes the collaboration
between the university and a
community for the mutual
beneficial exchange of
knowledge and resources.

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• A new conception of the relationship with
communities as equal partners.
• A new conception of what is and isn't knowledge,
given equal value to the different kinds and
sources of knowledge.
• That knowledge societies are about apply
knowledge for sustainable and inclusive
development.
• That knowledge should be measured through its
capacity to intervene in reality.
• New perceptions of what societies could be.
• New perceptions on what education should
mean.
EngagementEngagement
The engaged
practices have
several
common
characteristics

9. Propósito de GUNi
www.guninetwork.org
“The main
contribution of civic
engagement in
terms of social
responsibility is the
idea of serving
society at large;
dealing with real
problems of
common people and
communities, under
a vision of ethics
and values.”
Social responsibility of HE
• The knowledge economy versus a knowledge
democracy.
• The pressure for profitability versus the social
value of knowledge.
• Social and sustainable relevance versus
competition and competitiveness.
• Deep and complex understanding of reality.

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Main recommendations and agenda for action
Transformative knowledge to drive social change.
Recognizing the existence of multiple epistemologies and ways of
knowing
 from a mono-culture of scientific knowledge to an ecology of
knowledge;
 from rational knowledge to integral human knowledge;
 from descriptive knowledge to knowledge for intervention;
 from partial knowledge to a holistic and complex knowledge;
 from an isolated creation of knowledge to a social co-creation of
knowledge;
 from a static use of knowledge to a dynamic and creative knowledge.
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Elements of a vision
Community-university engagement informs the education
process, linking engagement within the teaching and research
dimensions.
HE have to go beyond educating professionals to educating citizens with
ethical awareness and civic commitment that exchange value with society
through a professional activity.
 It implies new ways of educating that demands deeper changes
 New approaches for learning based on participatory and problem-oriented
methods.
 Disciplinary studies should make connections with real world and real-time
issues.
 New, critical and reflexive learning systems need also to be incorporated.
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Elements of a vision
Partnerships: establishing community-university dialogue
 Stronger relationships with civic associations and with social movements
to co-create knowledge.
 New approaches to knowledge mobilization and creation are needed
between institutions and their communities related to real problems.
 Greater coordination between governments, civil society, educative
institutions, enterprises and the private sector for social transformation.
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13. Propósito de GUNi
www.guninetwork.org
In looking to the
future we are
calling for a world
were a new set of
partnership
principles are the
rule rather than
the exception.
Community organisations are calling for new forms
of partnership
• Based on principles of respect and recognition of the
differences of knowledge cultures in communities
and universities.
• Based on long-term.
• The diverse sources of leadership, roles in
knowledge production and organizing systems of the
projects are accepted.
• Participatory action research and Science Shop
experiences worldwide are two ways to move forward.

14. Propósito de GUNi
www.guninetwork.org
There are a
range of
actions that
would
contribute to
a more
engaged
knowledge
system:
Elements of a vision
• Making new knowledge available on an open-access
basis while improving to its application.
• Sustaining discussions amongst diverse knowledge
sources in relation to the grand challenges of our
communities.
• Generating knowledge strategies for informing
political decision-making that affect larch groups of
populations local or global.
• Creating cosmopolitan centres of culture, building
bridges and connecting different cultures and
sources of knowledge.

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Elements of a vision
HEIs role in Addressing Major Global Issues
 The diverse levels of communities are interdependent and no real solutions
will be sustainably reached if we don’t work on all them simultaneously.
 To link research agendas to collective challenges and the global development
agenda, making evident connections between academic activity and societal
needs.
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Elements of a vision
New policies: higher education and the state
• Professional careers in HEIs
• Policy climate within the academic world about how to recognize
excellence in CBR and engaged scholarship is advancing.
• Governmental policies
• Increasing interest in these collaborative co-construction research
projects worldwide.
The role of networks
• Numerous national, regional and global networks have emerged with
an overall objective of building the movement of CUE.
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We are excited about the prospects of
deepening the contributions of transformative
knowledge in the world today.
We are fully aware of the potential of higher
education to make sustained and meaningful
contributions towards identifying and
catalyzing a social change agenda for the
future of all humanity.
Thank you
UNESCO Chair in Community Based
Research and Social Responsibility
in Higher Education
United Nations
Educational, Scientificand
Cultural Organization