The Co Creative University

The co-creative university has become the main driver of social and economic development stimulating internal (students and academics) and external creativity (companies and institutional environment) as well as cooperation in various areas (e.g. applied graduation theses, research projects, lifelong learning). Intended as a contribution to a better understanding of how universities create value in numerous areas, this book discusses the determinants of creativity and ways of stimulating it with a special focus on approaches and practical solutions relevant to teaching. Examples include problem-oriented student theses, which represent a successful combination of creativity with practical knowledge. Based on the findings of international surveys of students, the author offers an in-depth analysis of the differences between what they expect from universities and the degree to which their expectations are met. Comparing students’ opinions with those of employees of international corporations (working graduates) permitted the author to test the actual utility of selected aspects of university education. Regrettably, both groups of respondents gave low ratings to support for developing creativity, which should serve as a warning sign and inform future reforms at this level of education. This book is primarily targeted to those involved in education, policy-making, and socio-economic development. It provides a rich source of information for university managers on how to better fulfil their missions based on the idea of co-creativity. It also suggests how to improve the effectiveness of research and education in order to ensure that both can better respond to current development challenges.

A fundamental shift is underway that will change how we conceive of value. In an era of increasing interconnectedness, individuals, as opposed to institutions, stand at the center of value creation. To adapt to this tectonic shift, organizations can no longer unilaterally devise products and services. They must engage stakeholders—from customers and employees to suppliers, partners, and citizens at large—as co-creators. Co-creation guru Venkat Ramaswamy and Kerimcan Ozcan call for enterprises to be mindful of lived experiences, to build engagement platforms and management systems that are designed for creative collaboration, and to develop "win more-win more" strategies that enhance our wealth, welfare, and, well-being. Richly illustrated with examples of co-creation in action, The Co-Creation Paradigm provides a blueprint for the co-creative enterprise, economy, and society, while presenting a conceptual framework that will guide organizations across sectors in adopting this transformational approach. Challenging some of our most deeply held ideas about business and value, this book outlines the future of "business as usual."

This innovative book provides a critical analysis of diverse experiences of Co-creation in neighbourhood settings across the Global North and Global South. A unique collection of international researchers, artists and activists explore how creative, arts-based methods of community engagement can help tackle marginalisation and stigmatisation, whilst empowering communities to effect positive change towards more socially just cities. Focusing on community collaboration, arts practice, and knowledge sharing, this book proposes various methods of Co-Creation for community engagement and assesses the effectiveness of different practices in highlighting, challenging, and reversing issues that most affect urban cohesion in contemporary cities.

This book discusses how academic institutions can play a principal role in companies innovation strategy. The characteristics of University-Industry collaboration are strongly related to the social aspect of the activity of collaborating agents oriented towards a common object of work. To analyze this phenomenon, the author applies one of the concepts from the “Practice-Based Approach", namely the concept of the Activity Network to understand the collaboration process of R&D activities in a Nordic (Telia) and Swiss (Swisscom) Telecom Companies developing innovative products. The author focuses on four phases of University-Industry innovation partnership building: identification, selection, formation and navigation. The study shows the interactions between individuals, the contexts in which they act and explores ways in which collaborative value co-creation is managed. This pioneering research offers new theoretical insights and managerial implications on how these dynamics influence innovation in companies. It will thus be invaluable to international scholars, researchers of R&D and innovation as well as business managers.

This open access book explores creative and collaborative forms of research praxis within the social sustainability sciences. The term co-creativity is used in reference to both individual methods and overarching research approaches. Supported by a series of in-depth examples, the edited collection critically reviews the potential of co-creative research praxis to nurture just and transformative processes of change. Included amongst the individual chapters are first-hand accounts of such as: militant research strategies and guerrilla narrative, decolonial participative approaches, appreciative inquiry and care-ethics, deep-mapping, photo-voice, community-arts, digital participatory mapping, creative workshops and living labs. The collection considers how, through socially inclusive forms of action and reflection, such co-creative methods can be used to stimulate alternative understandings of why and how things are, and how they could be. It provides illustrations of (and problematizes) the use of co-creative methods as overtly disruptive interventions in their own right, and as a means of enriching the transformative potential of transdisciplinary and more traditional forms of social science research inquiry. The positionality of the researcher, together with the emotional and embodied dimensions of engaged scholarship, are threads which run throughout the book. So too does the question of how to communicate sustainability science research in a meaningful way.

In this wide-ranging book, Anke Schwittay argues that, in order to inspire and equip students to generate better responses to global challenges, we need a new high education pedagogy that develops their imagination, creativity, emotional sensibilities and practical capabilities.

The main purpose of this book is to disseminate new research on co-creative approaches to teaching and learning in Higher Education (HE). The cases presented draw from a Danish cultural and educational context and have a special focus on collaborative, co-creative and distributed perspectives. With this collected volume, we wish to show the diversity of approaches to the concept of co-creation, on the one hand and, on the other, we intend to give a specific direction to these studies, which is humanistic, sociological, creative and pedagogical.

The main purpose of this book is to disseminate new research on co-creative approaches to teaching and learning in Higher Education (HE). The cases presented draw from a Danish cultural and educational context and have a special focus on collaborative, co-creative and distributed perspectives. With this collected volume, we wish to show the diversity of approaches to the concept of co-creation, on the one hand and, on the other, we intend to give a specific direction to these studies, which is humanistic, sociological, creative and pedagogical. The contexts we look at are problem-based and student-led learning, arts-based approaches to higher educational research and teaching, collaborative practices. We believe that these perspectives are still in need of further investigation through theories and practices. We understand co-creation as the process of creative, original and valuable generation of shared meaning and development. This collected volume offers novel empirical documentation and original theoretical reflections on the application of co-creative processes in higher education. This can be directly relevant for educators and the ways in which they design education, but also for students and the ways in which they cope with and manage an ever-changing academic labour market.