The COVID-19 represented what Murray (2009) defines as intractable social problems: problems where reactions of government structures and markets often seem to be inadequate. Within this shattering scenario, people rediscovered the power of collaboration as triggers for creating new artefacts and solutions (Manzini, 2015).
The research tried to focus on the role of design as a driver to create new initiatives and activities in response to the crisis. 130 case studies circa were collected, obtaining later a final set of 22 most exemplary initiatives, demonstrating how creative actions contributed to social innovation.
The paper aims to discuss how individuals were the activators and protagonists of bottom-up processes, which have produced solutions that can be identified as common goods, where society benefits as a whole (Hussain, 2018). Collaboration allowed both people and enterprises to develop ecosystems where creatives find space for action and which have a sense of existing only if shared with other people.