{{short description, Think tank for improving quality of life The Institute for Social Inventions was a

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-govern ...

set up in 1985 to publicise and launch good ideas for improving the quality of life. Its founder

Nicholas Albery Nicholas Bronson Albery (28 July 1948 – 3 June 2001) was a British social inventor and author, was the instigator or coordinator of a variety of projects aimed at an improvement to society, often known as the alternative society. Early life and ...

(1948–2001) sought to promote non-technological innovations.

History

The Institute emerged from the informal

network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematic ...

of Social centers and Info-services which spread around in London throughout the 1970s. One of the earliests of these centers was BIT Information Service, founded in 1968 by

John "Hoppy" Hopkins John Victor Lindsay "Hoppy" Hopkins (15 August 1937 – 30 January 2015) was a British photographer, journalist, researcher and political activist, and "one of the best-known underground figures of 'Swinging London' " in the late 1960s. Life ...

Inception

It was during his years as coordinator of BIT that Nicholas Albery came out with the idea of an

Institute An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations ( research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

who would promote all kinds of ideas and experimentations, developed mainly inside what has been called the "

Alternative Society A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...

Main idea

The institute has been known by different names, such as "Institute for Social Innovations", or "Institute for

Social Change Social change is the alteration of the social order of a society which may include changes in social institutions, social behaviours or social relations. Definition Social change may not refer to the notion of social progress or soci ...

". All these denominations revolved around the concept of new improvements to be made within the situation of the mainstream society, as it goes at any time to be considered.

Aftermath

It merged with the

Global Ideas Bank The Global Ideas Bank's origins lie in the Institute for Social Inventions, which was set up in 1985 by Nicholas Albery, social inventor and visionary. From small beginnings (a network of inventors, a quarterly newsletter), the Institute grew into ...

, formed in 1995.

References

* Social innovations edited by Albery, Mezey and Radcliffe ISI 0948826 30 4 Ideas banks Public policy think tanks based in the United Kingdom Counterculture

History

Inception

Main idea

Aftermath

See also

References