Social Innovation Strategies for the Design of Resilient Spaces in the Social Sector in NYC

Kiaras Gharabaghi (Ryerson University)
Melanie Panitch (Ryerson University)

This presentation will report on the Social Innovation for Social Justice project operated by Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. The project utilizes a quasi- ethnographic approach to document and narrate social innovations at both micro and macro levels within the social sector in New York City. Specifically, the project explores provider and consumer perspectives on spatial and process designs that reflect core principles of social innovation, such as non-traditional and inter-disciplinary partnerships, in an effort to increase the social justice content, and therefore the resilience factors, associated with social sector responses in highly marginalized communities. The focus of the project is the social sector of New York City.