Visions & Goals
In the complexity of contemporarysociety, social innovation is spreadingand its potential, as a driver of sustainable change, is increasing. To facilitate this process, the design community, in general, and design schools, in particular, can play a pivotal role.
DESIS Statement
The process of this defining document for the DESIS future started with the DESIS Conversations 2020 – an initiative to discuss the present and the future of social innovation, design and DESIS itself. A DESIS Manifesto started to be written afterwards in a collaborative and open process with all DESIS Labs.
History
Since September 2014, DESIS is a no-profit and cultural association, with the purpose to promote design for social innovation in higher education institutions with design discipline so as to generate useful design knowledge and to create meaningful social changes in collaboration with other stakeholders.
Team
Members can be legally constituted higher education institutions or Universities with design disciplines, private or public, sharing DESIS motivations and visions and supporting DESIS activities (Labs projects, international Initiatives, Platform improvements).
Governance
DESIS Network operates as a constellation of Labs and Lab-Initiatives, supported by a Platform. Each one of these Labs belongs to its own University and has organizational and administrative autonomy with respect to the Association.
Coordination Project
Through conversations with representatives of DESIS Network labs, it is possible to observe how active they are in fostering social innovation at a local level. Since its foundation, DESIS Network has recognized the value of its labs. Design for social innovation and sustainability is being built (in theory and practice) through all these experiences.