BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:icalendar-ruby CALSCALE:GREGORIAN X-WR-CALNAME:Social Innovation Speaker Series featuring Dr. Santi Furnari X-WR-TIMEZONE:Pacific Time (US & Canada) BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260812T025802Z UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_45095146505353 DTSTART:20240119T190000Z DTEND:20240119T203000Z DESCRIPTION:To RSVP for Lunch\, please email Events & Administrative Coordi nator Stacia Fewox at fewox@usc.edu.\n\n \n\nPlease join us for a research seminar by Santi Furnari\, Professor of Strategy and Associate Dean for E xecutive Education at the Bayes Business School\, City\, University of Lon don\, as he presents some of his most recent work.\n\n \n\nTitle: Civic El ites? The Emergence of a Civic Vision through Elite Engagement\n\n \n\nAbs tract: Since the writings of C. Wright Mills and before him Pareto\, socio logists\, political scientists and organization theorists have showed how elites can act in self-interested and conservative ways. Differently\, we examine the processes and conditions under which elites can contribute to social innovation by creating a new\, civic vision. By “civic vision” we mean an imagined future that is largely embraced by the citizens of a l ocal community (being it a city\, a neighbourhood\, a region or a place). Although early studies point to opposition between ‘elites’ and ‘civ ic’ goals\, we explore how a civic vision can still emerge from elites\, thereby making a ‘civic elite’ possible through social innovation pro cesses. We draw on a historical case study of Chicago’s Millennium Park (1998-2004)’s half-a-billion project aimed at building a new public park to celebrate the Millennium. The design of this park was shaped by differ ent philanthropic\, political and professional elites pursuing their diffe rent ideas of what the park should look like. Drawing on an extensive prim ary archive on the project triangulated with 60 interviews and historical data\, we analyzed how exactly elites attached their ideas to the project and what “tools of imagination” (e.g.\, maps\, plans\, budgets) they u sed during the project development. We show how the vision of the project evolved as a consequence of the gaps left in the project plans and the ten sions between the different elites\, ultimately making the vision (and the elites) become ‘civic’\, while pursuing a multiplicity of interests. Our contribution is a process model of elite engagement and civic vision e mergence. We draw implications for research on elites\, civic action and p lace-based communities.\n\n \n\nSanti is Professor of Strategy at Bayes Bu siness School\, City\, University of London\, where he also served as Asso ciate Dean. Currently\, he is a 2023-24 Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University. He has st udied how spaces and places shape the emergence of fields\, industries and practices\, and used configurational theorizing and methods to explain ca usally complex phenomena\, such as organizational innovation and sharehold ers’ activism for climate change. Santi’s research has been published in journals such as the Academy of Management Review\, Organization Scienc e\, Journal of Management\, and Management Science (among others). Santi i s Senior Editor at the journal Organization Studies. He served as the Repr esentative-at-Large of the OMT Division of the Academy of Management from 2019 to 2022. His paper on “Interstitial Spaces” won the AMR Best Pape r Award in 2014.\n\n \n\nHe is being hosted by the Sol Price Center for So cial Innovation and MOR at the Marshall School of Business. LOCATION:JFF (Fertitta Hall)\, 241 SUMMARY:Social Innovation Speaker Series featuring Dr. Santi Furnari URL;VALUE=URI:https://calendar.usc.edu/event/social_innovation_speaker_seri es_featuring_dr_santi_furnari CATEGORIES:Lecture / Talk / Workshop END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR