social innovation

Changing the system dynamics that created the problem in the first place

A social innovation is any initiative (product, process, program, project, or platform) that challenges and, over time, contributes to changing the defining routines, resource and authority flows or beliefs of the broader social system in which it is introduced. 

Successful social innovations have durability, scale and transformative impact.

                                                         Frances Westley, 2014

Frances Westley's keynote on the history of social innovation at Nesta's Social Frontiers, Nov. 14-15, 2013.

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3 minute videographic, 2013: What is social innovation?

Frances Westley, 2008 lectureWhat is social innovation?

Learning resources for social innovation

SiG Knowledge Hub

At Waterloo Institute for (Social Innovation and Resilience) WISIR, we are building on the (Social Innovation Generation) SiG@Waterloo partnership project funded by the J.W. McConnell Foundation.

One product of this partnership is the SiG Knowledge Hub, designed to provide learning resources and examples to inform the work of various sectors, communities and practitioners about how to create conditions for social innovation.

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Social Innovation Generation (SiG)

Nesta

Innoweave

Social Innovation Exchange

Bertha Centre for Social Innovation

Crises

Young Foundation

Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation