Abierta Anuario de Investigación

NUMBER 18 

Most of us have heard on more than one occasion that complex problems require complex solutions. Latin America is no exception, as it has been marked by inequality and various socioeconomic problems as a result of the disconnect between economic growth and social welfare (Barzola and Mendoza, 2020). This has required a paradigm shift in the design of public policies and interventions that generate real social change. Driven by international organizations such as the United Nations (UN) and the Millennium Development Goals, innovation has been increasingly inserted as a new paradigm and, in particular, the use of design and its methodologies to find solutions to pre-existing problems (Barzola and Mendoza, 2020) and, why not, new ones. Communication is not left behind and since the last decades new approaches have emerged that no longer see it as a mere instrument but as a fundamental process to generate social change, either by empowering communities, promoting inclusion, positioning new voices in the public agenda, encouraging citizen participation and even facilitating the discussion and formulation of public policies (Fernández-Viso, 2024).