Center for Institutional and Social Change

Founded in 2007, the Center for Institutional and Social Change (the “Center”) has become a facilitator of innovation and collaboration for scholars, practitioners, and students striving to address structural inequality through institutional transformation. Housed at Columbia Law School and begun as a pilot collaboration with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), the overarching goal of the Center is to develop new frameworks, strategies, roles, and institutions for effective institutional and social change directed at addressing structural inequality and achieving inclusive institutions. The Center grew out of a shared recognition that the existing frameworks and strategies for advancing equality need to be rethought, and that institutional change should be a central focus of that rethinking project. Its work is designed to build this capacity to address structural inequality through strategic analysis, empirical and field research, and brainstorming by researchers, students, and innovative practitioners. Its work proceeds primarily through collaborative projects focused on addressing structural inequality in different institutional settings. Current Center projects include:

Developing the Architecture of Inclusion in Higher Education
New Strategies for Transforming Low-Wage Work
Remedies for Residential Segregation
Race and Policing: New Models of Institutional Reform
Diversifying Arts Institutions of New York City

These Center-supported collaborations are designed to develop: (1) case studies and other in-depth research of innovative efforts to address structural inequality and the challenges they face, (2) tools to aid change agents in pursuing and assessing institutional transformation, (3) networks of innovative change agents who are strategically located to advance full participation, (4) reflective practice and action research conducted in conjunction with the development of these new initiatives, (5) educational programs and seminars to involve students in this research and develop the skills necessary for them to become innovative researchers and practitioners, and (6) publications, educational programs, websites and conferences that will communicate this knowledge beyond the immediate participants.

Link to Center for Institutional and Social Change

Center for Institutional and Social Change | Columbia Law School