MDR and Portland.. linked

If you check out the MDR website you will their writing on Social Acupuncture:

Our Social Acupuncture wing houses ongoing work that induces encounters between strangers, blurs the line between art and life, and proves the generosity of the social sphere. We devise methods to increase our stock of social capital, bridging gaps between people who may not ordinarily have any reason to form relationships. Simultaneous to its impact in the community, it functions as a laboratory of sorts for the performance work of the company, inspiring new techniques and approaches, as can be seen in the development of Diplomatic Immunities.

In our Social Acupuncture work, we are exploring an aesthetic of civic engagement: the artistic use of the institutions of civil society - of community centres, schools, senior's centres, sports clubs, the media and public spaces. Civic engagement as an aesthetic uses the consensual participation of these institutions as material to create work that, seen from most angles, appears to be mostly not art, or even intervention, but that takes modest glances at simple power dynamics and, for a moment, provides a glimpse of other possibilities.

 Social Practice Masters details can be found at http://www.pdx.edu/art/graduate-programs

Dedicated to helping students understand and explore the ways that artists and their work function within a larger social context, the Department of Art offers a two-year degree program leading to the Master of Fine Arts, Contemporary Art Practice, with an emphasis in either Studio Practice or Social Practice. Studio Practice students engage in independent research and production, combining disciplines or concentrating on a single discipline, such as drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, digital or time-based media. Social Practice students work beyond the studio, engaging the public in projects that seek to transcend traditional boundaries between artist and audience