Social Innovation: How do we ensure Human-Centered Design wins over capitalism?

While reflecting on the articles we read, I see the growing conversation about Social Innovation for emerging markets and a shift to low-cost Human-Centered Design as a tremendous opportunity for economic empowerment-based community development. However, I have several reservations about the long-term evolution of this previously uncharted territory and the subsequent implications of integrating emerging markets into a capitalist model.

I am only too thrilled to think about the tremendous impact that improving serious problems in developing regions of the world, from transportation to health, security, education, etc. The opportunities for social justice through innovation in these regions are seemingly endless, as there are unintended applications which can build on and inspire new innovations. However, my cynicism catches up with me, and I begin to wonder when, how, and if these markets will be taken over by the ideals of capitalism, and how—if and when that time comes—to ensure that the focus is still on sustainable opportunities for these emerging regions to empower their own livelihood.

I worry about the social costs and implications. While the articles clearly outline that the low-cost designs are build with the involvement of locals and through the observation of routine life in the emerging economy, I am still left wondering how often the locals were invited to brainstorm with the innovation and design team. Human centered design can produce remarkable innovations, and when build from the ground-up they will be affordable—but what about inherent biases of the innovators? What about the social-cultural context that the innovations are being built for? Certainly, the contributions of locals in the design discussion will help balance any unintended westernization or cultural erosion—but how do we secure that in the long term? Once a low-cost innovation exists, surely competitors will come to the market. The articles explained that the consumers in emerging markets are highly discerning, and expect high quality for low cost. How do we ensure that this remains a non-negotiable? I worry about product literacy and truly informed decision-making.  I am left wondering when elements of a competing capitalist economy will negatively impact the cultural standards for trade and commerce. Perhaps I’m jaded, but I fear the day we inadvertently destroy culture and replace it with a false idea of globalization.

Take for instance, the social impact of Television on the women of Fiji --(you can find a number of articles, I just selected the study for the sake of this discussion). Granted--this was not a social innovation; this was the transplant of the Western experience of TV straight into Fiji. However, as we build progress through social innovations, I seriously hope that Human-Centered Design can combat the inherent ethnocentric bias and the unintended influence of a pseudo-Imperialism. There is no Institutional Review Board (used in research to approve a research study as ethical) for social innovation and I am terrified of the day that we move beyond what seems to be a socially-conscious way to empower developing regions of the world.

I suppose my fear is based on the idea that this conversation is seen through the lens of economics. As a self-proclaimed idealist and social justice advocate, it makes me wary to hear that the conversation about social innovation is still build on a consumer model. Think about it—the global citizens that social innovation seeks to empower are reduced to “consumers”;  it will effectively limit the ability to create significant dialogue and social progress to a mere material exchange with no real safeguard for ethical practices.


Source Documents:

Big Data from Cheap Phones (Talbot, D., Technology Review, 2013). <http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/513721/big-data-from-cheap-phones/>

Design Thinking for Social Innovation (Brown, and Wyatt, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2010, pgs. 30-35). <www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/design_thinking_for_social_innovation/>

Eating behaviours and attitudes following prolonged exposure to television among ethnic Fijian adolescent girls. Becker, A., Burwell, R., Herzog, D., Hamburg, P., and Gilman, S. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 2002. <http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/180/6/509.long>

IDEO’s Human Centered Design Toolkit; www.ideo.com/work/item/human- centered-design-toolkit/

Long-Term Global Demographic Trends: Reshaping The Geopolitical Landscape (CIA, July 2001). <www.cia.gov/library/reports/general-reports- 1/index.html>

The Importance of Frugal Engineering (Sehgal, Dehoff, and Panneer, Strategy+Business, Summer 2010). <www.strategy-business.com/article/10201?gko=24674>

The Next 4 Billion: Market Size and Business Strategy at the Base of the Pyramid (Hammond et al., International Finance Corporation and World Resources Institute, 2007). <www.wri.org/publication/the-next-4-billion>

What Happens Next? Five Crucibles of Innovation That Will Shape The Coming Decade (Bisson et al., McKinsey Special Report, 2010).