Strategies of design for social innovation and design activism in the promotion of positive social capital during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil.

Abstract

This case study aimed at mapping initiatives of social innovation that have promoted positive social capital during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. To this end, information about the actions and their developers were collected online and further described using the forms "Light Format" and "In-Depth Format", from the toolkit developed by the Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability (DESIS) Network. In addition, interviews with the people involved in the projects were carried out in order to obtain further details. From the promising cases mapped, 15 were selected and categorized according to their field, coverage area and target. Finally, the initiatives were assessed based on the concepts of design for social innovation (Manzini, 2008) and design activism (Fuad Luke, 2009; Thorpe, 2012). The analysis showed that whether the actions proposed had the design framework conceptions as a theoretical basis or not, the projects indeed adopted design strategies to reach their goals, leading to positive impact in the social, economic and environmental areas and thus promoted positive social capital.

Theoretical and methodological approaches to activism during the COVID-19 pandemic— between continuity and change

“…Andion (2020), Igwe et al (2020), andPrado et al (2020) focussed on collective actions to respond to the needs caused by the pandemic (e.g., fundraising for the distribution of food or the purchase of protective and hospital equipment, information sharing). Using semi-structured interviews, Igwe et al (2020) documented the formation of solidarity networks in times of crisis in Nigeria.…”

“…Andion (2020) performed an analysis of the actors of solidarity in Brazil based on existing datasets and showed that times of crisis have elements of continuity with the past activism scene, but crises also provide an important space for a "reinvention of civil society" and for the emergence of social experimentations and innovations: Indeed, she found that while many of the actors of these campaigns were already protagonists on the activism scene, also new actors emerged, namely the peripheral communities that in certain occasions had a leading role. Prado et al (2020), who conducted their study in Brazil as well, used a mixed-method approach and found that the initiatives that emerged were very heterogeneous, as they had different targets (e.g., ordinary consumers vs. vulnerable people); also in this case they could show how the pandemic situation brought to innovations in daily tasks (for instance the creation online platforms to buy necessary products or to disseminate information). Margolies and Strub (2021) examined a peculiar Mexican regional music response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the música huasteca community (música huasteca is a traditional Mexican musical style).…”

“…It emerges from this review that the studies that investigated activism in the context of the pandemic analyzed a variety of topics. Considering those who tackled pandemic-related activism, an important proportion addressed forms of solidarity (Andion, 2020;Igwe et al, 2020;Prado et al, 2020) and community making (Margolies and Strub, 2021), others addressed pandemic-related disorders (Campedelli and D'Orsogna, 2021), offline (Munandar, 2020) and online protests (Graham et al, 2021;Haupt et al, 2021). The studies that did not address pandemic-related topics were predominantly oriented to the investigation of activism that promoted positive social change (environmental activism: Arya and Henn, 2021;Haßler et al, 2021;political dissent: Unuabonah and Oyebode, 2021;ethical consumption: Carolan, 2021), but, in line with the call for the need to broaden the scope of activism research to include movements with antagonistic scopes, we also find the work of Hunt (2022), that investigated both pro-abortion and anti-abortion social movements.…”

“…Finally, two studies used documental analysis to examine how civil society mobilized at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (Andion, 2020) and to map initiatives of social innovation that have promoted positive social capital during the COVID-19 pandemic (Prado et al, 2020). Andion (2020) found that the performance of civil society in fighting COVID-19 has made a difference in terms of mobilized resources and promoted actions.…”

“…For example, Andion (2020) examined reports that mapped the initiatives of SMOs to combat COVID-19 (e.g., fundraising campaigns or in-kind donations to social assistance, purchase of protective and hospital equipment) in one Brazilian city. Similarly, with the aim of mapping initiatives of social innovation that have promoted positive social capital during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil, Prado et al (2020) analyzed reports describing these actions and their developers.…”