The Evolution of Social Innovation

Building Resilience Through Transitions

Edited by Frances Westley, J.W. McConnell Chair in Social Innovation, Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience, University of Waterloo, Katharine McGowan, Assistant Professor, Bissett School of Business, Mount Royal University and Ola Tjörnbo, Adjunct Professor, Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience, University of Waterloo, Canada

At a time when governments and civil society organizations are putting ever-greater stock in social innovation as a route to transformation, understanding what characterizes social innovation with transformative potential is important. Exciting and promising ideas seem to die out as often as they take flight, and market mechanisms, which go a long way towards contributing to successful technical innovations, play an insignificant role in social innovations. The cases in this book explore the evolution of successful social innovation through time, from the ideas which catalysed social and system entrepreneurs to create new processes, platforms, projects and programs to fundamental social shifts in culture, economics, laws and policies which occurred as a result. In doing so, the authors shed light on how to recognize transformative potential in the early stage innovations we see today.