Operationalizing Sustainability

8Toward the Mass Co-design: Why is Social Innovation so Attractive?

8.1. Introduction

The evolution of society is associated with the emergence of a new population, the “Y Generation” (“why” generation!), also called “Digital Natives” or “Net Generation”. By now it makes up 20% of the total population, soon to be 40%. In this chapter, we will focus on these younger individuals, since they will reinforce the notion of an “interconnected society.” However, we do not yet integrate the so-called “Z-Generation”, as this is the youngest generation, with enormous anticipatory power which will directly influence society (as did the Y generation by the way), but which does not yet control the levers of society.

In our modern society, we are focusing on two major evolutions associated with the emergence of the Y generation:

• – globalization of the society;
• – introduction of the new information technologies leading to social networking.

If we holistically analyze some characteristics related to these two events, we can say that human activities have three fundamental impacts on sustainability. These are:

• – environmental impacts (on the overall state of our ecosystem);
• – social impacts (on the situation of people in need, behavioral changes, in building sustainable knowledge, soft skills and know-how, etc.);
• – societal impacts (inclusivity, social cohesion in a country, local social links, social assets, laws, national or regional policies, etc.).

As a result, there are ongoing issues ...