Design and Social Innovation in Asia-Pacific Network

Case study: Design and Social Innovation in Asia-Pacific Network: Transforming professional identity, and evaluative practices for social impact.

Staff: Joyce Yee 

Western-centric and economically driven design methods are not equipped to support and evaluate impact arising from social innovation initiatives within non-Western cultures. They can inadvertently obscure, disrupt, or replace culturally specific practices and relationships during the design process. Research by Professor Joyce Yee of Northumbria University on culturally-specific design approaches helped establish the Design and Social Innovation in Asia-Pacific (DESIAP) network which has supported nearly 600 social innovation practitioners from 100 organisations in 14 countries. Yee’s research has enabled Asia-Pacific organisations such as Re:public (Japan) who were already using design methods to establish a stronger professional identity as design and social innovation (DSI) practitioners. Her work on evaluation approaches (for example with Impact Hub Phnom Penh) has helped transform the way organisations use evaluation and has resulted in improved social outcomes for the marginalised and excluded communities they serve. Find out more