Social Space (Issue 8, 2016-2017) - The Social Finance Issue

EDITOR’S
NOTE
Dear readers,
As Executive Director of the Lien Centre for Social Innovation at Singapore
Management University, I travel a lot for work, mostly to give talks, lead
workshops, and form partnerships with other leading universities and
institutions across Southeast Asia and greater Asia. Time and time again,
I am in awe of the sheer number of innovative business ideas that many
social innovators have come up with, from both the non-profit and for-profit
sectors. These socially minded and highly motivated people are working
hard to address, and possibly solve, some of the most pressing societal
issues we are facing today, ranging from access to clean energy, to financial
inclusion and women empowerment—just to name a few.
One challenge, shared by many people I have spoken to, is that we tend to
work in silos. Because many innovators do not often talk to one another,
and are not always aware of similar ideas in other places, they do not
collaborate, share best practices and combine resources. We see this
as a missed opportunity in an ever-connected world. This is why Social
Space is now published twice a year instead of once, in order for us to
be more active as well as proactive, and, most importantly, relevant to our
readers. We are also making several major changes in content creation and
content dissemination with the aim to make Social Space more accessible
to academics, practitioners and students. You will find that the physical
size of the magazine has been reduced to make it easier to hold and carry,
and each issue will be centred on a theme: in this January 2017 issue, we
dive into the various forms of social finance and their implications. Lastly,
to democratise the content of Social Space, we are building an online
platform where all its issues will be made available for download, as well
as publishing articles or blog entries to keep our readers up-to-date with
relevant happenings in the region.
Social Space is more than just a publication. It is an online and offline
community, showcasing success stories, challenges, innovative ideas and
the transformative efforts of innovators in both public and private sectors.
Of course, we are still a work in progress and need your support. We are
an open book in more ways than one, and therefore welcome your valuable
feedback and suggestions on how to improve our future publications.
Similarly, our readers are encouraged to reach out to contribute articles or
submit new ideas.
Let’s make Social Space our collective space. Thank you so much for your
support, please do sign up to our mailing list so you can be notified when
the next issue is available.
Warm regards,
Jonathan Chang
Editor-in-Chief
jonathan@socialspacemag.org
Social Space ISSUE EIGHT 3