Change Agents — Blueprints for Interinstitutional Collaborations
Led by the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME), the Change Agents ERASMUS+ consortium included ELISAVA in Barcelona, the Estonian Academy of Arts, Berlin University of the Arts, the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, and Shenkar College in Israel. This multinational effort resulted in Change Agents — Blueprints for Interinstitutional Collaborations, an open-access publication to support social design education and practice, and in turn drive meaningful societal impact, freely available to educators, students, and NGOs alike.
The guide was unveiled on 21 November 2023 at a one-day conference hosted by ELISAVA in Barcelona, where professionals from universities and civil society organisations gathered to explore innovative models for addressing societal challenges through community engagement and social design.
This conference marked the conclusion of the Erasmus+ Change Agents project launched in early 2023 connecting five universities and two NGOs to develop new methods and strategies for bridging the gap between the academic and non-governmental sectors. The collaboration was grounded in the Social Design Network, founded in 2020 by the Social Design Hub at MOME’s Innovation Center and a professor from Shenkar College of Engineering, Design, and Art in Israel to strengthen the knowledge base of social design. With contributions from renowned researchers, teachers and practitioners, it supports the advancement of relevant education and research across the globe. The Change Agents project brings together individuals with fieldwork experience and direct ties to the communities that will ultimately benefit from the outcomes of the design process. This link has largely been missing from the offerings of higher education institutions, making this initiative particularly significant.
More information and the publication are available at:
https://socialdesignnetwork.org/project/erasmus-change-agents/
*The European Commission’s support for the production of the publications does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
