The workshop Tools for Social Impact: Designing and Measuring, organized by Societing and Social Seed, with the support of Casa Netural, LabGov, RENA and Rural Hub presents the final working report entitled “Caravan Petrol” from the title of a famous Italian film of 1960, in which the poor protagonist tests the illusion of having become rich.
The workshop, held in January 2015 in the suggestive headquarter of Rural Hub, in Calvanico (Salerno), had the objective to start a debate and research for the measurement of the social impact. We are in front of a new social phenomena, connected with the social innovation, the sharing economy, the cultural innovation, the collaborative services, ect. All of these experiences and approaches have in common a new understanding of the value, that take into consideration the economic sustainability, but also the social and environmental impacts.
But, how can we measure this? The debate has been opened in the last years by economist that tried to find new tools for measuring the GDP. In recent times new indexes have been elaborated, one of these is the Social Progress Index, of which talked about in an article of The Commons post.
In Calvanico, thanks to the support of the tools of the service design and the design thinking, experts, scholars and practitioners were involved in a debate on the necessity to find new tools and instrument for the measurement of the social impact. As case study it was used the question of the presence of oil deposits in the Basilicata Region. The participants started from the idea that
it is necessary to safeguard the territory, generating a new response to a model that could damage the environment. These were the tasks addressed by all parties and organizations involved in the challenge.
Nowadays, what is missing is the awareness of the need for change and the ability to build models that can create value from the new experiences of organization of material and immaterial resources available. “Business as usual” has the sole and exclusive aim of profit maximization. Instead social innovation tries to show if and how it is possible to develop new integrated economic models, understanding the real trend of change. As pointed out by Luigi Corvo, Professor of Public Management and Social Economy at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, “it is necessary to produce evidence on the combinations of value generated by social innovation business model”.
To promote this process of change, as underlined by Professor Christian Iaione – coordinator of LabGov – it is necessary to work on the following three aspects:
- PUBLIC DEBATE, making widely known themes such as measuring the impact or – in the case of Basilicata – conceiving new models of development and creating new culture and corporate philosophy;
- BECOMING CONCRETE as far as the measure is concerned, which must be quantitative, but also qualitative;
- LANGUAGE, because laws are the result of day-by-day legislative and public work of interpretation. It is important to balance all interests at stake, through a language that is acceptable to all stakeholders, trying to overcome every kind of barrier to communication.
A new approach to sustainable development is able to produce and distribute value in the territory and it simultaneously manages to involve the public authorities and private stakeholders in a virtuous relationship with local communities: long drivers that lead from good choices to sound policy frameworks. It is demonstrated – for example – that the activities of rural innovators are not economically sustainable if you adopt a pure “balance sheet approach”. However, if you produce a profit that could not be translated into a financial value, it can be considered a form of value. The creation of standardized and shared tools to measure positive externalities and impacts is a decisive factor for the development of alternative models. The public actor in this case plays a decisive role. Recognizing the environmental, cultural, territorial and social impact produced by measuring externalities it could create new certifications and conversions of this non-financial value.
To download the final PDF of the meeting: caravan-petrol
To watch the video about the workshop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwA2cpBFPu0
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“Caravan Petrol” – Un documento strategico per la misurazione dell’impatto sociale
Il workshop Tools for Social Impact: Designing and Measuring, organizzato da Societing e Social Seed, con il sostegno di Casa Netural, LabGov, RENA e RuralHub presenta il rapporto finale di lavoro dal titolo “Caravan Petrol“ dal titolo di un famoso film italiano del 1960, in cui il protagonista – povero – mostra cosa succeda quando si ha l’illusione di essere ricchi.
Il workshop, tenutosi a gennaio 2015 nella suggestiva sede di RuralHub, a Calvanico (Salerno), ha l’obiettivo di avviare un dibattito e ricerca per la misurazione dell’impatto sociale. Siamo di fronte ad un nuovo fenomeno sociale, connesso con l’innovazione sociale, la sharing economy, l’innovazione culturale, i servizi collaborativi, ect. Tutte queste esperienze hanno in comune una nuova comprensione dei valori aggiunti di sostenibilità economica, impatti sociali e questioni ambientali.
Scarica il PDF: caravan-petrol
Guarda il video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwA2cpBFPu0