Communication Design for Welfare and Social Policies

This paper presents the case study of an applied research project called “Communication Design for Welfare and Social Policies” (Politecnico di Milano), which focused on the production of awareness-raising campaigns on social emergencies, within the actions of the “Plan for development of Welfare” of the Municipality of Milan. The Department of Social Policies and Culture of Health was, in particular, involved as an institutional partner; also, some Milanese citizens acted as active protagonists of the campaigns. The project turned, this way, into a participative arena, shared at the institutional level (cooperation between university and local administration), and with the potential involvement of all the stakeholders of the social innovation process (nongovernmental organisations, associations, groups of citizens, private sponsors and business, etc.). From a theoretical point of view, this paper outlines how Design, and particularly Communication Design, may support the spreading of social innovation, and contribute to the integration of innovation processes within the development of social policies of a government.