Offline and Online Collaboration in Providing Service Design Projects for Social Innovation to Villages: A Co-Creative Action in Quanzhou

In the field of rural revitalization, social innovation is seen as an added value for government institutions in contributing to a more prosperous society. Villages have gained increasing attention recently for achieving social innovation goals. With the support of social networks, there are many actors who can participate in the design of social innovation processes enhancing citizens' abilities to contribute . Meanwhile, The design community has developed many collaborative processes to contribute to this field, but these collaboration practices are largely local in nature and do not consider integrating online and offline collaboration. In 2022, CSDC (Chinese Service Design Community) and Upbeing Action Village collaborated on a one-month program titled "Co-Creative Action in Quanzhou". This research explored the possibility of introducing service design for social innovation in villages, especially, exploring the possibility of collaboration online and offline. This paper describes a research through design (RtD) project with the aim to organize a one-month service design program as an experimental subject. After the project, the author conducted semi-structured interviews with 24 participants, and used a qualitative analysis method to conduct coding analysis. This research explores the opportunities and limitations of service design projects through online and offline collaboration and suggests a structure to organize future interventions that aim to break the geographic limitations and engage creatives in villages.