Mapping Social Innovations

A database which resulted from the European and global mapping survey comprises 1000+ social innovation cases derived from different sources such as the 25 SI-DRIVE project partners, social innovators (practitioners) and invited institutions funding or supporting social innovation,

In addition, most central aspects of the 1.000+ cases, such as short descriptions, involved actors, information on which countries the project operates in, etc. are provided in an interactive map, which is available here.

Background information: European and Global Mapping
Within the European and global mapping an overview of social innovation and its different regional and cultural background and differentiations is provided. The main task was to compare European with global regional approaches, analyse the different approaches and priorities, identifying good practice and lessons learnt.

The mapping started with a first methodology round-up against the background of the theoretical framework for the first empirical phase (state of the art review, collecting cases). Subsequently, two phases of empirical research followed:

  • Mapping 1 as a first global synopsis of the state of the art of social innovations, and after a new theoretical and methodological up-scaling.
  • Mapping 2 as an in-depth analysis of selected cases to discover prototypes or a typology of social innovations (see figure below).

Both mapping exercises led to two activities: First, integration of foresight aspects from preceding work packages on policy, and, second, specification of implications for social innovation policies.