The course ‘Social Innovation’ is part of the international CHARM-EU MA program, which Utrecht University and the Green Media Studies initiative participate in, together with the University of Barcelona, Trinity College Dublin,  Eötvös Loránd University and the University of Montpellier.

Students will learn about and engage in creative, communicative and innovation processes that drive sustainability transformations, both analytically and by developing their own social innovation initiatives. They will acquire knowledge on the role of media in framing and communicating sustainability issues and critically asses and practice with a variety of digital tools to support their social innovation initiatives.

Introductory week: Students take a hands-on playful approach to tackling sustainability challenges by playing a location based mobile game that invites students to come up with their sustainable interventions in their different cities. Students also participate in a three day hackathon to finally present their social innovation initiatives in previously defined problem spaces

Second part: Students are introduced to the three general themes of the module: Social Innovation, Media and Communication and Stakeholder Engagement. Over several weeks, students acquire knowledge on the key concepts in these themes and engage in several assignments to implement the newly acquired knowledge in social innovation initiatives.

Third Part: The third and final part of the module is focused on student project work. In this part of the module, students go through the different design thinking steps to finally present their social innovation initiative.

To find out more about CHARM-EU, the program and how to enroll, see the project website.