The book is about the mutual interdependence of innovation processes and social affairs. Social innovation can be simply defined as the new ideas and initiatives that make it possible to meet our society's large or small challenges in areas including the environment, education, employment, culture, health and economic development. It is currently becoming increasingly important as a central concept for social theories and politics. This edited volume brings together interdisciplinary contributions which examine the connection between innovation and social problems, which has been surprisingly underexplored in academia and practice thus far. The alliance between innovation and social policy is highly relevant to face the challenges of the 21stcentury, including scarcity of resource, ageing societies and man-made climate change. All demand substantial, continuous and sustainable structural change to maintain international competitiveness. Social change can only be understood by improving our knowledge of the impact of innovation processes in their co-evolutionary alliance with social evolution. This volume offers a key starting point for those looking to further explore this prolific and important realm of social research.