"The text is useful as a guide to social innovation from the perspective of the world's youngest innovators." (Lindsay R. Martin, CBQ Communication Booknotes Quarterly, Vol. 51 (3-4), 2020)
Part I: Positioning youth as social innovators on the global stage.- 1. The Sustainable Development Goals and the role of youth-driven innovation for social change; Sheri Bastien and Halla Holmarsdottir.- 2. Global perspectives on youth and school-to-work transitions in the 21st century: New challenges and opportunities in skills training programs; Halla Holmarsdottir and Kendra Dupuy.- 3. Critical youth work for youth-driven innovation: A theoretical framework; Daniele Morciano and Maurizio Merico.- Part II: Case studies of youth-driven innovation for social change.- 4. The development of an innovative One Health Sanitation Science fair to cultivate change agent capacity among pastoralist youth in rural Tanzania; Sheri Bastien, Erin Hetherington, Keri Williams, Jennifer Hatfield, Mange Manyama.- 5. Fostering a rise in youth social entrepreneurship in the Arabian Peninsula: From policy to implementation; Seungah Lee and Cameron Mirza.- 6. Youth and politics in Brazil: The use of ICTs and the new political activism in Brazil; Maria Francisca Pinheiro Coelho and Ana Cristina Murta Collares.- 7. DIY media making for social change: Hong Kong’s ethnic minority youth speak back to exclusion and call for social action through cellphilms; Casey Burkholder.- 8. Building student change agent capabilities: Case UniWASH in Uganda; Riina Subra, Mikko Koria, Oona Timonen, Stella Neema, Annika Launiala.- 9. The amplifier effect: Oslo youth co-creating urban spaces of (be)longing; Ingrild Tolstad, Aina Landsverk Hagen and Bengt Andersen.- 10. Cultivating eco-creativity: The seeds of ecological responsibility in the hands of Norwegian early childhood education teachers; Biljana C. Fredriksen.- 11. Fostering social innovation in youth: Learning from a youth social entrepreneurship initiative in Ireland; Danielle Kennan, John Canavan and Noreen Kearns.- 12. Youth as architects of peace? Street Mediation at the Norwegian Red Cross and other national Red Cross unions; Espen Foss and Ida Hydle.
Sheri Bastien is Associate Professor in Public Health at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Canada.
Halla B. Holmarsdottir is a Professor in the Multicultural and International Education program at Oslo and Akershus University College, Norway.
This edited collection outlines the issues central to youth engagement in research and social innovation. Youth-driven innovation for social change is increasingly recognized as holding potential for the development of sustainable strategies to tackle some of the most pressing global challenges of our time. The contributors provide additional knowledge concerning what actually constitutes an enabling environment, as well as the most effective approaches for engaging youth as architects of change. While sensitive to the need for contextual appropriateness, the volume contributes to the development of shared understandings and frameworks for engaging and spurring youth-driven innovation for social change worldwide.
Youth-Driven Social Innovation showcases examples of youth engagement in frugal and reverse innovation worldwide, alongside examples which demonstrate the tremendous potential of South-South learning, but also learning and youth innovation in the Global North. It will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines including education, sociology, anthropology, public health, and politics.