Intensified study of the subject of social innovation – which has been largely practice-driven – has revealed conceptual weaknesses which in turn demand a deeper (continued) social-theoretical foundation of social innovations as an independent innovation type within a micro-foundation of the social realm. To this end, this article attempts to use the social-theoretical approach of Gabriel Tarde as a scientific conception of active social life to aid the analytical identification and classification of social innovations and the development of a corresponding scientific and social policy perspective. With recourse to Gabriel Tarde’s micro-sociological and practical sociological agenda, it can be shown that and how social innovations change social practice, thus becoming the actual drivers of transformative social change, and what requirements result from this today for social practice and (innovation) policy. [Authors’ abstract].
Howaldt, Jürgen; Kopp, Ralf and Schwarz, Michael (2013) Social innovations as drivers of social change - Tarde's disregarded contribution to social innovation theory building (Paper presented at the international conference Social Frontiers : The next edge of social innovation research, at GCU's London Campus on 14th and 15th November 2013).
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