Organizational Learning in Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) of the City of La Plata (Argentina) That Develop Programs Linked to Responsible Social Innovation

The economic, political and social reality of Latin America and Argentina reveals the social debts or unfinished / pending problems on the agenda of the countries of the region: poverty, the deficit in education, social exclusion and inequality. In this context, the public National University of La Plata (UNLP), has a fundamental role not only in the ethical and professional training of students, but also in promoting the strengthening of the capacities of civil society organizations whose mission is to confront these realities.

This presentation addresses the problem of the incorporation of knowledge in CSOs executing programs linked to responsible social innovation in the framework of the joint work with the UNLP. It was based on the realization of a survey of the CSOs that are included in the Directory of Civil Society Organizations of the city of La Plata of the Institute of Administrative Investigations of the School of Economics ( UNLP) in order to put together a typology in relation to the target population, intervention objectives, intervention modality (among other variables) and from that point select the case studies.

This paper presents the work in progress analisys on interviews with the relevant actors in each of the selected organizations, and on a process of participant observation of the activities concerning of the programs implemented. In order to detect the changes and learning that occurred in these organizations from the perspective of the actors (members of the organizations and users of their services) and from that point, on make proposals to improve the quality of their learning, processes and productions.