Service Startups and Creative Communities: Two Sides of the Same Coin?

Abstract

Service Startups and Creative Communities can be seen as two sides of the same coin. They are both organizations that adopt service dominant logic to create innovative services. These service models are a double-edged sword as they can facilitate the transition towards sustainability or they can support an unjust, neoliberal ‘gig economy’ that commodifies work and further elongates social inequalities. Understanding the similarities and differences of these organizations reveals a wider issue: the conflict of values between eco-modernist and radical approaches to sustainability. Reviewing the two antithetical positions of this spectrum would allow designers to make informed design choices. Finally, such a review provides a philosophical springboard for further debates in the field of design.

Keywords:

• service design
• service startups
• creative communities
• social innovation
• design for Sustainability

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr Jamie Brasset, Reader in Philosophy, Design & Innovation, Central Saint Martins, UAL, Andriana Nassou and Alkisti Efthymiou for their valuable comments and feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Spyros Bofylatos

Dr. Spyros Bofylatos is a course instructor in the Department of Products and System Design Engineering of the University of the Aegean with a degree in design engineering. His research interests include design for sustainability, social innovation, craft, coDesign, open design, service design, critical thinking and disruptive practices. His work is based on creating meaningful dialogue between the theoretical framework, physical artefacts, products of the design process and the society in which those ideas manifest.

Ida Telalbasic

Dr Ida Telalbasic is a lecturer at the Institute for Design Innovation, Loughborough University London, contributing to research, teaching and enterprise activities in the area of design innovation management. Her research focuses on service design innovation and strategy, including research projects that deploy a design-driven approach for developing community development projects with a focus on social entrepreneurship, social innovation and incubation activities in local contexts. Her experience includes developing scaling-up methodologies for social innovations and contribution in a startup project aimed to design collaborative services to boost social innovation in smart cities. She is a programme director for the Entrepreneurial Design Management programme and a visiting lecturer at Central Saint Martin’s College (Innovation Management) and Ravensbourne (Business Design) in London.