This cutting-edge summer school programme responds to a huge unmet need among today%E2%80%99s university students and young professionals to access intellectual tools for distinguishing between %E2%80%9Cgood%E2%80%9D and %E2%80%9Cevil%E2%80%9D innovations. While virtually all developed and developing economies now place a very strong emphasis on fostering entrepreneurship and high-value-added innovations, they have clearly not yet learned to evaluate innovations in terms of their broader impacts and desirability. This course will challenge students to re-think innovation from a transparent normative standpoint, inspired by Sedlacek%E2%80%99s celebrated Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street but informed more directly by path-breaking frameworks developed within the field of Social Entrepreneurship (including those elucidated in Social Entrepreneurship: New Models of Sustainable Social Change edited by Alex Nicholls as well as a series of recent publications). It will build on disciplinary approaches from organisational sociology, anthropology, management studies and economics, while distilling key insights into accessible, systematic frameworks that will be useful at a practical level.This pioneering summer school will benefit not only from the critical, even radical, academic culture of SOAS, University of London, but also from proximity to the wider social innovation ecosystem of London. Accordingly, a handful of leading academic experts and leading practitioners will be invited to share their work with students, and tours will be organised to take students to important %E2%80%9Chotspots%E2%80%9D such as London%E2%80%99s Impact Hubs.

Course leader
Dr Tuukka Toivonen

Target group
Current students, professionals + leisure learners

Course aim
On successful completion of the course, a student should be able to demonstrate the ability to: Think critically and creatively about any example of social, environmental or sociotechnical innovation they may encounter in the course of their studies and careers, with sensitivity to cultural-institutional contextUnpack the key components and likely impacts of recent as well as emergent sociotechnical innovations such as the AirBnB homestay/hostel platform or Uber by applying concepts such as shareholder vs stakeholder governance and blended valueTranscend simplistic normative judgments and think multi-dimensionally about how to create and implement "good" innovations that exploit new social and technological opportunities

Credits info
7.5 ECTS Please note that summer courses are not accredited by SOAS.Students are usually able to obtain credits from their home institution and typically our courses receive 3 credits in the US system and 7.5 ECTS in the European system. If you intend to claim credits from your home institution, please check the requirements with them before you enrol. We will be happy to assist you in any way we can, however please be aware that the decision to award credits rests with your home institution.Assessment will be optional and will vary for each course. Participants will be provided with a certificate of attendance and transcripts will be available on request.

Fee info
GBP 1400: TuitionA tuition fee of 1400 will be charged per 3-week programme. This figure does not include accommodation fees.Application feeA one-off, non-refundable application fee of 60 will be charged to cover administration costs. Please visit the SOAS online store to make your application fee payment.DiscountsAn early bird discount of 10% is available if fees are paid by 31 March 2015.15% discount for SOAS Alumni.20% discount for current SOAS students.Other discounts are available for partner institutions and groups, please contact us for further information.



Scholarships
SOAS, University of London offers a limited number of scholarships for participation in academic courses which are part of sessions 2 and 3 of the SOAS Academic Summer School 2015 programme. These scholarships are in the form of partial fee waivers to cur

SOAS, University of London
Address: SOAS, University of London Thornhaugh Street
Postal code: WC1H 0XG
City: London
Country: United Kingdom
Website: http://www.soas.ac.uk/summerschool/subjects/
E-mail: summerschool@soas.ac.uk
Phone: +44 2078984205