Empowering the territory through service design and social innovation: the MakeinProgress case study.

The society in which we live today is in the process of a paradigm shift (Murray 2009). The crisis of the capitalist model is creating the need for certain processes of social innovation processes (Murray et al., 2010; Manzini, 2015). This paper presents an example of how social innovation and service design (Meroni, Sangiorgi, 2012; Stickdorn, Schneider, 2012) can promote the territory, thanks to the practice of Making. To do so, we tested a “what-if” situation trying in answer to the following research questions: a) what kind of Maker space could work in this territory? b) Who are the potential users? c) Could Making increase the appeal of the territory for social innovation? To answer our questions we used the method of action research (Stringer 2014; Stoecker, 2012). We created a demo service in order to experiment with different kind of activities and areas of application. The project MakeinProgress (MiP) was then initiated. MiP represented a case study of the way in which Making could facilitate the development of the territory (Arquilla et al., 2014) with the aid of service design. The MiP project was made to preview the use and the social function of an in progress restore and converting “Filanda” (a mill for the processing of textiles) thanks to public financing. The old mill was firstly conceived of as a business incubator which later adapted to the needs of the territory. The project occurred within a territory that was unfamiliar with the dynamics of Making and social innovation. Service design was widely and practically used (i.e. call for ideas, workshops, space hacking and offer of different services) hence demonstrating what it is possible to achieve when design positions itself as the intermediary between institutions and local communities. The action research methodology allowed for: awareness of the project in the territory to emerge, for a group of local citizens that could take on the management of the space to be identified and trained and for the space to be moulded according to the needs of the territory. Thanks to service design, the former mill became a place that allowed the community to promote new job opportunities and share ideas. The space allowed for the creation of new businesses. MiP also enabled new means of collaboration between the creative community and pre-existing local companies, allowing for the latter to benefit from the community thanks to the exposure to new technologies and contamination of ideas.