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Media Release

June 19 2008

Is SA's social innovation at stake?

Parliament House, AdelaideSouth Australia. The first place in the world to allow women to stand for parliament. One of the first places to allow women to vote. The first Australian state to introduce income taxes. The first Australian state to have public archives.

South Australia has a well-established reputation for social innovation - for the development of ideas and institutions that have met all kinds of the State’s social needs. But will that reputation continue into the future?

This week, some of the nation’s brightest minds will gather to examine the key issues and trends in social innovation - and the factors that may influence or inhibit it at the History & Future of Social Innovation Conference, to be held at UniSA’s Hawke Building.

An initiative of Adelaide Thinker in Residence Dr Geoff Mulgan, the conference is being hosted by the Government of South Australia, the University of South Australia's Hawke Research Institute for Sustainable Societies (HRISS) and Hawke Centre, along with the University of Adelaide and Flinders University.

The official conference opening will include the launch of Dr Mulgan’s report Innovation in 360 Degrees: Promoting Social Innovation in South Australia.

HRISS Deputy Director Associate Professor Geraldine Bloustien says the History & Future of Social Innovation Conference is an important opportunity to assess the state of social innovation in SA.

“The success of any society hinges not only on its ability to imagine the kind of place it wants to become and the kind of people it wants its citizens to be it must also have the right environment to create the policies and structures needed to realise those ambitions - whether the focus is on health, education, the arts, architecture or new technologies,” Prof Bloustien says.

“This conference will look at why SA has been so successful at innovating in the past and thrash out how it can continue to innovate for its current and future citizens.”

Keynote and featured speakers include Dr Geoff Mulgan; anthropologist and cultural commentator Assoc Prof Geraldine Bloustien; social justice expert Professor Stuart MacIntyre; public health specialist Professor Fran Baum; SA’s Commissioner for Social Inclusion, Monsignor David Cappo; Greg Selinger, Minister of Finance for the Province of Manitoba, Canada; UniSA Professor of Law and Criminal Justice, Rick Sarre; and Brenda Kuhr, Director, Adelaide Thinkers in Residence.

Full conference program details, including abstracts of papers, can be found at www.innovation.sa.gov.au/socialinnovation

What  The History & Future of Social Innovation Conference
When  June 19 to 21 2008
Where  Hawke Building, UniSA City West campus, 50-60 North Terrace, Adelaide

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