Social innovation as a trigger for transformations - the role of research

This Policy Review examines the place of Social Innovation (SI) in Research and Development projects, especially those funded by the EU. It also refects on the relevance of SI and SI research in collective action, policy making and socio-political transformation in Europe and the world today. In particular, it makes suggestions on how SI research can contribute to strengthening the position of SSH in the contemporary and future European research and policy landscape.1 It thus seeks to explain how SI as a concept and a practice holds a great socio-political transformative potential, and warns against reducing the meaning of SI to mere social problem mending as a response to state and market insufciencies.