Roundtable on Wisdom-Centered Approaches to Social Innovation

The field of social innovation has developed rapidly in recent decades, and it has come to reflect—and make tangible impacts on—a diverse array of global contexts. However, mainstream social innovation techniques, often rooted in Global North, hyper-capitalist cultural frameworks, inadvertently propagate disparities in power. These approaches frequently overlook the perspectives, wisdom, and ancestral knowledge of Global majority populations, leading to the inadvertent reinforcement of existing inequalities and a hindrance to genuine social metamorphosis.

Relatedly, an underappreciated dimension of the theory and practice of social innovation is the extent to which it is indebted to a similarly diverse array of religious and indigenous wisdom traditions. Not only does religious faith and commitment motivate many individual social innovators and support many institutions that have the capacity to spark social innovations, but the wisdom of religious traditions provide critical insights that can help address shortcomings in Western conceptions of social innovation. Similarly, Indigenous wisdom frameworks offer tremendous depth and pathways to relational and land-based approaches to social innovation. As the University of Waterloo aspires to the “Waterloo at 100” vision of being a global leader in social and policy innovation, there is an opportunity to enhance the way social innovation is understood within and beyond our campus community.

The aim of this roundtable discussion is to spark a broader conversation about wisdom-centered approaches to social innovation with interested faculty and students at the University of Waterloo. Registration is now closed.