Have you ever wondered just how we might build a culture of action in our communities? What might our cities look like if they were designed to foster citizen innovation? How might we generate more social entrepreneurship? Creating the Conditions for Social Innovation Emergence explores these questions, crystalizing Tonya Surman’s learning about how to foster the conditions from which social innovation can emerge, and how these insights fit into a more linear or scaled approach to social innovation.

Interest in social innovation is growing. It needs to. Our societies are facing extraordinary challenges: increasing inequality, rising poverty rates, unstable economies, climate change and a raft of other issues.  At the same time, technologies are transforming the world in which we live, markets are undergoing massive change, and philanthropists are changing their practices. The speed of change is faster than ever, and the social and environmental need is reaching a frightening crescendo.

These challenges are daunting, yes, but they also offer the right set of circumstances to look at old problems in new ways. These challenges offer precisely the right opportunity for social innovation to emerge.

With all of this in mind, thinkers and practitioners alike are trying to make sense of the field of social innovation. What exactly is social innovation? How can we better understand social innovation? What are the best ways to catalyze social innovation and how can we produce more of it?