SIX
Summer
Schools

From 2008 – 2016, we hosted 9 summer schools in 9 different cities across 6 continents.

The SIX Summer School was our annual gathering organised for the core members of the social innovation community – the drivers building the global social innovation field.

Each event was co-designed in partnership with local partners to have lasting impact on the host cities.. The purpose of the gathering was to take stock of how the field of social innovation was developing and sharing knowledge on methods, financing models, public policy and so on.

SIX, The Young Foundation and Mondragon Innovation & Knowledge (MIK), held SIX’s first summer school in 2008 bringing together the community of people and organisations involved in practical social innovation to share skills, methods and insights. Explore more

 

In 2009 SIX partnered with TESE, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and Young Foundation to host its second annual SIX Summer School in Lisbon. The gathering focused on ‘Recovery through social innovation’, set against the backdrop of the global financial crisis. Explore more

The 2010 Summer School was hosted by the Lien Centre for Social Innovation. The theme was ‘SIX and the city’ looking in particular at how cities could harness the energy, knowledge and creativity of its inhabitants to speed up their ability to respond to the climate change, chronic disease and ageing populations. Explore more

2011 was a year of huge geo-political shift. The eruption of civil unrest in North Africa, along with several other countries, meant that the nature of citizenship was changing. In a time of public spending cuts and harsh competition, there was a growing interest in co-creating societal and citizen engagement. So SIX partnered with Kennisland to bring together people from across Europe to discuss how we can co-create democracy. Explore more

In 2011, SIX community started exploring the future of social innovation. Despite the move to embrace new ideas, methods and processes for social innovation, there was recognition that the field of social innovation was still lacking the maturity to tackle the complex challenges. The gathering explored the questions: What is missing? What should social innovation look like in 2015? Where are the gaps? And what do we need to fill them? Explore more

In 2012, SIX went down under to host the 5th annual gathering in Adelaide, Australia, partnering with The Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI). Explore more

City leaders and urban planners all over the world are challenged with reshaping cities to make them thrive. How can we ensure social sustainability is at the heart of cities of the future? What role do communities, urban designers and technology leaders have to play in creating more liveable cities and communities? Explore more

The SIX 2014 Summer school was held in Vancouver, as part of a full week of social innovation activities and events happening across Canada. We delved deeper into the issue of shifting culture, exploring the elusive set of variables that influence it. Explore more

Over the two and a half days, we explored how India’s emerging civic consciousness is impacting on new thinking on cities, citizens and the networks they weave together with their governments and institutions. Explore more

We worked with our partners Somos Más in Colombia to explore the potential of social innovation in transforming divided. The event took place just the day after the Colombian population had voted to reject a historic peace agreement between FARC militants and the government. This provided an emotional, fascinating and inspiring context to the entire summer school. Explore more

  • 2008
    San Sebastian

  • 2009
    Lisbon

  • 2010
    Singapore

  • 2011
    Amsterdam

  • 2011
    Gdynia

  • 2012
    Adelaide

  • 2013
    Seoul

  • 2014
    Vancouver

  • 2015
    Mumbai

  • 2016
    Bogota

“SiG’s partnership with SIX to co-host the 2014 SIX Summer School in Vancouver was a pivotal moment for Canada. The Summer School, benefitting from the participation of SIX’s global network, brought Canada’s emerging social innovation constituency together for the first time from all sectors: community, business, government, and academia. Conversations and relationships started or reinforced at SIX Vancouver have strengthened cross-sector work and contributed to such outcomes as a new provincial social innovation network in Alberta and the development of practical program partnerships among social sector organizations, government and business.”

Tim Draimin, SiG, SIX Summer School 2014 co-host