Innovating Places: Social Frontiers

SOCIAL FRONTIERS: THE NEXT EDGE OF SOCIAL INNOVATION RESEARCH, NOVEMBER 14 & 15, LONDON

The global field of social innovation is gathering momentum. Yet despite thriving practitioner networks and a real commitment from policymakers and foundations to support social innovation, empirical and theoretical knowledge of social innovation remains uneven. Even though there are many organisations working in this field, much more could be done to bring these networks, organisations and individuals together.

This is the aim of Social Frontiers, to build and strengthen the community of social innovation researchers. By bringing together a multiplicity of voices and perspectives on social innovation we hope to strengthen and extend existing networks, share learning, promote collaboration, identify gaps in knowledge and work together to build a common research agenda for the next decade. 

The Social Life team are presenting "Innovating Places" a paper exploring the work of US sociologists Harvey Molotch, William Freudenberg and Krista Paulsen, whose work on "place difference" sets out a framework for thinking about the multiple connections between people, organisations, ideas, history and how they "lash up" in different ways.