Social innovation acknowledges that alternative arrangements between state, market and civil society are called for if innovations are to be sustainable. This chapter examines grassroots-led processes of social innovation in the field of poverty in Flanders, inspired by Ibrahim’s model of grassroots-led development. Inspired by it, we discuss the paradoxes for a politicising approach in the practice of the Flemish grassroots-led social innovation practices, Where People in Poverty Speak Out (WPPSO). We address two central questions. First, we demonstrate that social innovations such as WPPSO that aimed to improve the voice of people in poverty cannot trust only in the quality of the process of grassroots-led social innovation. A process-oriented approach might be a necessary condition for social innovation, but the democratisation of policy processes such as WPPSO do not necessarily create the conditions for concrete enhancements of the living conditions of people in poverty. Our second question was if other factors, outside of the innovation process, also need to be considered. A key external factor was that of encapsulation tendencies in policy production. The participative way of policy making about poverty with the grassroots organisations of people in poverty has brought about a separate domain of poverty policy.
Restoring rivers with an integrated approach that combines water safety, nature development and gravel mining remains a challenge. Also for the Grensmaas, the most southern trajectory of the Dutch main river Maas, that crosses the border with Belgium in the south of Limburg. The first plans (“Plan Ooievaar”) were already developed in the 1980s and were highly innovative and controversial, as they were based on the idea of using nature-based solutions combined with social-economic development. Severe floodings in 1993 and 1995 came as a shock and accelerated the process to implement the associated measures. To address the multifunctionality of the river, the Grensmaas consortium was set up by public and private parties (the largest public-private partnership ever formed in the Netherlands) to have an effective, scalable and socially accepted project. However, despite the shared long term vision and the further development of plans during the process it was hard to satisfy all the goals in the long run. While stakeholders agreed on the long-term goal, the path towards that goal remains disputed and depends on the perceived status quo and urgency of the problem. Moreover, internal and external pressures and disturbances like climate change or the economic crisis influenced perception and economic conditions of stakeholders differently. In this research we will identify relevant system-processes connected to the implementation of nature-based solutions through the lens of social-ecological resilience. This knowledge will be used to co-create management plans that effectively improve the long-term resilience of the Dutch main water systems.
Hogeschool Rotterdam wil in samenwerking met IT-Campus en Rotterdamse mkb-bedrijven onderzoeken of de dataskills die studenten in hun opleiding verwerven, aansluiten op de datageletterdheid die van hen als startende professionals wordt verlangd. Om dit te beoordelen vragen we Rotterdamse ondernemers naar de datagedreven uitdagingen en problemen die zij voor zich zien en of zij bij de instroom van startende professionals voldoende kennis en skills zien om die uitdagingen het hoofd te bieden. Met de uitkomsten kunnen kennisinstellingen een helder beeld krijgen van het concept datageletterdheid en hiermee een handvat bieden aan opleidingen om dataskills in de curricula aan te laten sluiten op de behoefte in de arbeidsmarkt van de Metropoolregio Rotterdam-Den Haag (MRDH). We werken toe naar een ontwerp Data Skills-set. Misschien is het beter om te spreken van datacompetenties, hetgeen onderdeel is van de zoektocht in dit onderzoek. Welke terminologie is het meest behulpzaam in het oplijnen van onderwijs en werkveld op het gebied van data: geletterdheid, competenties, skills of een combinatie daarvan. Is het van belang of juist contraproductief om daarin (merk)specifieke tooling een plek te geven? We vragen ons ook af of datageletterdheid als een generiek concept domeinoverstijgend bruikbaar is, bijvoorbeeld tussen het economisch en technisch domein. De verwachting is dat de bevindingen op het gebied van datageletterdheid in de regio Rotterdam te generaliseren zijn naar andere delen van Nederland. Ook die hypothese willen we verkennen in dit onderzoek. Door het beantwoorden van deze vragen willen we een start maken voor het ontwerp van een instrument voor professionele ontwikkeling in het werkveld als ook een referentiekader voor het gesprek met onderwijspartners en overheid. Daarnaast kan zo’n ontwerp DataSkills-set ervoor zorgen dat de onderwijsdomeinen in gesprek blijven met elkaar ten aanzien van nieuwe methoden en onderwijsvormen voor vaardigheden.
Laif & Nuver, a retail business in Groningen, have asked the Research Center for Built Environment at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences and House of Design for assistance with one of their waste streams: EPS – Ex-panded Polystyrene packaging (piepschuim). Laif & Nuver estimate that they produce 50 m3 of waste EPS once every six months. They currently dispose of this waste EPS in the general garbage bin. Laif & Nuver have been searching for interested parties to help them address this challenge and find alternative uses for their waste EPS. While they could accept the current status-quo and simply continue to dispose of the waste EPS in the gen-eral garbage bin, they have the idea that it can be transformed into innovative new materials and are motivated to explore this idea further. They have asked researchers at the Research Center for Built Environment and House of Design to help them develop the idea into knowledge and innovation. As a result, a partnership has been established between Laif & Nuver, Kastanje Wonen, FOLKconceptstore, House of Design and Hanze Uni-versity of Applied Sciences. In the first six-month phase of this new partnership an exploratory study of trans-forming waste EPS into new building and design material will be conducted.
