{"id":161,"date":"2021-11-03T15:27:19","date_gmt":"2021-11-03T15:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/six.stimulatingminds.co.uk\/?page_id=161"},"modified":"2022-07-04T19:10:55","modified_gmt":"2022-07-04T19:10:55","slug":"field-building","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/socialinnovationexchange.org\/legacy\/what-we-do\/field-building\/","title":{"rendered":"Field Building"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A global network of diverse social innovation expertise.<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Since establishing SIX in 2008, we\u2019ve identified and connected social innovation leaders across the world to create a global network of expertise. Fuelled by a belief that change is more effective when people work collectively, our programme of activities offers curated and informed access to some truly inspirational people doing incredible things across a broad range of sectors and regions. For us, it is the combination of our people, knowledge and actions that lays the groundwork for societal transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n



Why is field building important?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

For any organisation or initiative to achieve the scale of impact necessary to address the large and complex challenges we face globally, we need to be organised, systematic and connected. We need a \u2018field\u2019 that can support our work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Field building work is about bringing together disconnected people, ideas, experiments and finance to create an organised social innovation industry or sector. It is the invisible \u2018plumbing\u2019 that connects things and makes things just \u2018work\u2019. The organisations who do field building work are sometimes described as ‘field catalysts<\/a>‘. You can read more about what field building is and who else does it here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our field building in practice<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Field building takes time and patience. Our approach is demand-driven, responding to both the needs of the people in our network and changes in the world around us. The examples below show how SIX has built fields and helped others grow movements of their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Building consortiums<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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We help organisations find other people and organisations to work with to build large scale collaborative projects. We engage with partners with diverse set of skills and assets to co-create project ideas and proposals. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Bridging diverse
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We bring unexpected groups of people together to create spaces where unlikely relationships can flourish. Diverse people learn from each other, new knowledge emerges and collaborations across sectors and silos are born. The Unusual Suspects festival<\/a> does this at a city level, whilst our SI-Live<\/a> series links theory and practice. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Influencing policy<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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At city, regional and national levels, we utilise co-creation and cross-country collaborations to develop social innovation narratives and enable policy environments where social innovation can flourish. Our work in Europe<\/a>, Colombia<\/a> and Seoul<\/a> are good examples of how we’ve influenced policy. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Shaping the funding landscape<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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We support and challenge philanthropic foundations to use their power and resources more effectively to shape the landscape of social change. Learn more about this work through our Funders Node <\/a>programme.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Using the power of storytelling to reframe narrative<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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We employ and advocate the power of storytelling to widen understanding of social innovation and introduce new ideas and concepts to different audiences. The SIX Wayfinder in 2020<\/a> is a good example of this approach.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Impact<\/h2>\n <\/div>\n
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Field building doesn’t happen over night. We’ve spent more than a decade building social innovation ecosystems at city, national and regional levels. Three examples are below:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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Canada<\/h4>\n

Connecting local and global through collaborative partnership <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n \n \n

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Europe<\/h4>\n

Building social innovation communities and policies<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n \n \n

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Seoul<\/h4>\n

Developing a people-powered city<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n \n <\/section>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n