A GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY COURSE AT THE CAPITAL APPLIED LEARNING LAB

Building a Social Impact Consciousness

A pragmatic, philosophical, reflection space to explore how social change works, what drives this change, and the role we each can play.

RATIONALE
Growing income inequality, poor or declining educational systems, unequal access to affordable health care and the fear of continuing economic distress are putting stress on political systems worldwide and challenging the credibility of all of our institutions from businesses to philanthropy to government. COVID-19 and a heightened consciousness of systemic racism has exposed glaring disparities touching education, health, and economic opportunity — risk-factors that have become inescapable especially for communities that have been structurally excluded. At the same time, environmental degradation and corresponding mass extinction of our flora and fauna show the effects of pollution and the lack of conservation of our basic commodities of food, water, energy, and land. We in turn are left to contemplate what we each can do to solve these “big” problems?

Course Description

This course is part philosophical, part practical, and part introspective designed to help students build a holistic understanding of how social change works, its potential ills despite good intentions, and how to understand our individual roles in doing good. Designed to integrate their social impact internship experience with their learnings, students will wrestle with the fundamental question of “what it means to do good” and how to navigate the inherent trade-offs that exist within a complex system. Students will explore this question through the lens of different roles within the impact ecosystem such as how policymakers may create better laws that protect and support residents, or how business leaders can steward its resources to invest in the communities they operate in, or even how activists use grassroot efforts to raise awareness to key social causes.

LEVERS FOR CHANGE

We begin by looking at how social change works, dissecting macro concepts and understanding the important roles that work together and keep opposing balance in the larger impact ecosystem. We will look at inequality and environmental degradation and how we got here as an anchor for why we focus on social impact. We pay particular attention to the time horizon of change, how actors can interact, and incentives of each actor.

PROBLEMS BY DESIGN

We will then move into the realm of philosophy and personal reflection, understanding human nature and explore these problems as intentional and designed. We will discuss the role that institutions have played around systemic oppression through the use of power and privilege of a few that has contributed to these problems. Yet, we are not immune to examination and will turn the spotlight to ourselves, understanding our own identities and how they may show up in how we even approach our role in the impact space.

SECTORAL DISTINCTIONS

Next, we will move into the practical realm, dissecting roles in each sector as well as the incentives that drive each sector and how they interact with each other. We will better understand the interaction points as well as the aggregate effect that organizations may have on the world both positive and negative (like creating more jobs for people and paying taxes), and some negative (like polluting local rivers and exploiting local workers).

OUR CHOICES

Lastly, we will turn inward and better understand the agency we have to create social impact including the role of individual well being connected to broader social impact as well as our ability to create boundaries and a ruleset to guide our own decision-making through a “gut check.” The course will culminate in a personal manifesto that will guide our social impact consciousness.

Course Format

The course includes a mix of case studies but also readings and videos in psychology, management, and philosophy. The goal is to make the materials practical and actionable. We will have a number of visitors to class who will give a truer insight into the complexities of this work. What makes this course unique are four things:

Individual reflection. Students are required to keep a “philosopher’s” journal to keep track of their learnings and do deep introspection
Peer share. This seminar is a container for deeper community among other students who are also going through their impact discovery journey. It is meant to be a brave space for fellow journeyers to explore deeply, thoughtfully, and vulnerably. As such some reflections will be done with an assigned peer partner(s) to come prepared for a larger conversation.
Studio assignments. Students will use seminar time to work on practical assignments that will be beneficial in their careers and throughout their internship.
Open-sourced content. The intent of this seminar is that the course content would be open-sourced on a publicly-facing website and could benefit other people outside of the class, so we will save ample time for course reflections and feedback at the end of each module so that students will be co-creating the course content for the benefit of future learners within Georgetown and beyond. Thus all materials will be fully accessible.

Share widely

This course is constantly being updated, so we encourage you to come back here often. All content on this website is open-sourced and we encourage you to share widely and make this your own, with attribution of course (as licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0).

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