University of Tasmania, Australia

Social Innovation? Assessing Empowerment Models for Social Change

Entrenched problems of poverty and disadvantage are only ever partially understood by the social policy or community development actors who seek to remedy them. While international research paints poverty as multidimensional and participation and social inclusion as goals, there is also widespread acknowledgement of the ‘problems of participation’ and the persisting tendency to impose top-down solutions rather than enable bottom-up change. This project will investigate innovative approaches to social change that seek to empower economically disadvantaged groups, as evaluated from the perspectives of these groups themselves. The exact topic and geographic scope is open to student interest but may include:

• Social enterprise and intermediary labour market organisations
• Community enterprise
• Micro credit/ Microfinance
• Community finance

This project forms part of the Institute for Regional Development’s research program on Socio-Economic Innovation.