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the level of positive impact on the wider
society. The Social Innovation Journey aims to
describe and systemise the different stages of
development of a social innovation project,
combining them with dedicated tools,
methods and activities of support to be
delivered by an incubator
(see eMag #1 for more details).
The Social Innovation Journey consists of two
main elements of incubation:
-An external circle which describes social
innovation at an early stage of maturity,
helping them move from a concept, to an
idea, to a pre-prototype ready to be tested
with a community of stakeholders.
-The internal circle works with more
formalised and mature social innovations,
supporting them to achieve a more structured
and replicable solution.
Within both circles, the activities of the Social
Innovation Journey are organised around five
main areas: Who (see eMag #2 for more
details), What, How (viability), How (feasibility)
and Why (see eMag #1 for more details). In
this third issue of the Transition eMag we will
be looking at the What stage of the Social
Innovation Journey.
What: Developing the solution and the social
impact
After establishing that social impact is the end
goal of the innovation you are incubating
(Why stage), and starting by placing the
people, roles and relationships as the corner
stone of the process in the centre (Who
stage), the Social Innovation Journey moves
to the What stage. At the What stage the social
innovation incubators support the social
innovation from the first stages of a vision, to
an idea, to formulating the idea into a
proposal. The What stage focuses on the
value proposition, which in the case of the SIJ
will always mean the social value proposition;
how will the innovation create a positive social
impact in the society.
The What area of the model covers everything
that has to do with generating ideas and