Team up in Performatory!

Social Innovation is all about coming up with solutions with people, not just for them. Students from different study programmes team up in Performatory on the BUas campus to co-create solutions to societal issues in areas like health, equality, human rights, and the environment. 

“Students of Leisure & Events have been able to choose the Social Innovation specialisation for almost 20 years,” says Esther Groenendaal, “and after a successful pilot last year, students of Tourism can also join now.” From the Tourism domain, Esther is engaged in further developing BUas’ Social Innovation courses; something that cuts across all domains of course. “The best thing would be if all domains eventually participated in Performatory,” Esther continues. ‘’By the way, the cross-domain ball started rolling because a student of Facility Management had heard about it and wanted to participate because the form of education appealed to them so much. That’s what I like about it, that the collaboration originated from the student community itself. Bottom-up, exactly as it was meant to be!”

And how does that work, education within Performatory?

“From their own interests, the student seeks a commissioner to work on a societal challenge. Students seek a challenge within the designs and courses that the Social Innovation specialisation offers, which are Community, Experience, Process, Transit, and Space. In such designs, theories, models, insights and ideas are shared which students can substantiate their search for solutions with. It is a form of education  seeking the students’ passion and interests and taking them from there into more in-depth content.”

So topics are decided on by students themselves?

“We always say: choose something your energy is flowing to. To give an example, a student is now  engaged in the topic ‘food insecurity’. What can you do – with various stakeholders – on a small scale to tackle this problem? The student writes a proposal and pitches it to the group to enthuse other students to participate. Furthermore, there are ten Topic Days for each design every year revolving around a certain theme. Tourism, for instance, brings in the theme ‘ethics’, Leisure & Events ‘community building’, and Facility ‘sustainable service design.’ They spar with and learn from each other during weekly meetings. Students draw up the agendas for these meetings themselves.”

So a lot of a student’s own initiative is required; how do students cope with that?

“Some find it hard, especially in the beginning; it needs to sink in a bit. Of course, we help everybody to get in the saddle; we organise a three-week intro, for example, including a two-day excursion to Limburg. We build on the team together in those three weeks. Afterwards, the students know better what is expected of them. Students opting for this specialisation genuinely want to contribute something. They do not only want to attend classes, but also shape their studies themselves. This means they need to seek out things sometimes, but we challenge them to ask lots of questions, be critical, and most of all, to listen closely.

Doesn’t it start with that last one?

“True. It’s all about co-creating and in doing so, we use the Design Thinking method. Its first phase is empathy. Listening to what is needed. And then starting to build on something together with the relevant community, with students and experts from the several domains. With entrepreneurs, innovators, the international community. That building concerns the strategic development and implementation of ideas or interventions. It’s about causing a system change – however small. Breaking open a system and organising things differently. Figuring that out and at the same time delivering something a client can move forward with.”

And students of the several study programmes really pull together? 

“Surely! In May we hope to go to Kathmandu with a group of students to conduct co-research together with Nepalese students. They will learn there how to address a case study, so collecting data, conducting research, how to engage the local population and, for example, the NGOs. Students will also work together on a project in Stavanger in cooperation with Urban Life & Placemaking, the Bocaina project in Brazil, a project in Berlin with a university partner, and numerous projects in the Netherlands.”

This is the second year you have participated in Performatory. What does it bring you?

“I truly experience this as together, the co from co-creation, and that feels good. I’m happy that we as an academy have grabbed this ‘hook’; it gives so much energy! I’ve been working at the Tourism Academy for a while, but this is new to me. I see it as an opportunity to develop myself further. I’ve learned a lot from Youp Selen and Bert Smit. Together with the team, we’ve developed a part of the curriculum which we’ve integrated something extra into from the Tourism domain. These are mainly business-related and international topics, and themes such as project management, Innovation Marketing and Building a Brand.”

At the start of this academic year, 16 new Leisure, Facility, and Tourism students joined the current group of 55 Social Innovation students. One of them is Tourism student Daniel Villasana García. Daniel started looking for a project in the field of sustainable urban development, and will now be working in Stavanger (Norway) for Innovation Dock for six months, together with three other BUas students; one from Facility Management and two from Leisure & Events. 

Very curious about your Social Innovation project in Stavanger, but first of all, what’s Innovation Dock?

“Innovation Dock began ten years ago in Stavanger, Norway, renting office spaces to start-ups. Over time, they evolved into an innovative company, focusing on resilient economic resources and environmental impact reduction. Last year, they partnered with Equinor to support green start-ups. Innovation Dock collaborates with entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, and municipalities for a sustainable future. Acting as a bridge between stakeholders, they bring diverse resources and perspectives together. They work closely with public institutions like Stavanger Kommune and the University of Stavanger.” 

What exactly does the project you are working on entail?

“Together with the other BUas students, I actually work on a couple of projects in the context of the themes Living in the City and Urban Life & Placemaking. We’re working on a Social Intervention project for the first theme, for example. For our research we’ve chosen the issue of Oil Pollution, as it is deeply connected to the industrial economy and the geographical situation of Stavanger, concerning individuals and institutions from the whole region and beyond. We’ll have to explain why we chose this issue, how it affects the different aspects of livability in the city, and come up with a solution or a way to raise awareness in relation to it. In the end, we’ll have to present our project to various stakeholders.”

What do you take away from your Performatory experience at BUas that you can now apply to your work placement and your projects?

“From what I previously learned, I take away the ability to act resiliently, making progress within the chaos and being flexible, adapting to the unexpected changes and growing with them. I also take away the reflective behaviour – so much encouraged in the Social Innovation specialisation – as a valuable insight to understand myself better, and to see where I can align my talents and my passion with future projects. Finally, I would like to mention the bird’s eye and the worm’s eye views that I use when I need to zoom in or zoom out whenever I encounter an obstacle in my way of development or in projects.”

Talking about your way of development, what does your Stavanger experience bring you personally?

“Personally, this experience gives me the chance to live in a place I always wanted to explore, interact with a new culture and meet people from here in Stavanger and other places in Norway. The cross-cultural exchange and networking opportunities fascinate me and give me a sense of fulfilment. It also helps me develop my character and transform into the person I want to be in life. It feels great to be here, like a dream come true.”

 

Interview: Maaike Dukker-‘t Hart