New eBook: Essentials of Social Innovation: Design Thinking

Posted by Stanford Social Innovation Review on February 27, 2024

Ever since Tim Brown and Jocelyn Wyatt championed design thinking for the social sector in their 2010 Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) article, “Design Thinking for Social Innovation,” design-based solutions have promised to deliver profound societal change. But has design thinking lived up to its promise? In SSIR’s 2023 winter issue, Anne-Laure Fayard & Sarah Fathallah charged that “Design Thinking Misses the Mark,” arguing that, as typically practiced, design-based approaches have not been able to create impactful and sustainable solutions; instead, a critical design stance is required for designers to serve communities better than their own methodology.

Our newest eBook, Essentials of Social Innovation: Design Thinking, collects these and 12 other of the most indispensable articles we’ve published on design thinking for social change, everything from foundational statements to critical re-evaluations, along with case studies and reports from the field, and with an original introduction by SSIR’s academic editor, Johanna Mair. Essentials of Social Innovation: Design Thinking serves both as an introduction to the methodology for change leaders at the beginning of their design journey and also as an opportunity for more experienced practitioners to brush up or catch up on new developments.

SSIR’s Essentials eBook series features the best of our print magazine and website on topics that are critical to leaders of social change. Essentials of Social Innovation: Design Thinking follows Essentials of Social Innovation: Scaling, which is the perfect companion for leaders working to scale their social innovations. Essentials of Social Innovation: Starter Kit collects 10 of the most time-tested and foundational articles in SSIR’s history.

Order here.