What is social innovation – Danish Social Innovation Academy

What is social innovation?

Social innovation skis when people come together to create change. At the Academy , we work with social innovation as a field of knowledgefield, practice, and movement.

“Social innovation is like a watercourse that collects and branches out into babbling brooks or powerful streams and, over time, transforms the landscape..."

– From the book “Kollektiv Handlekraft” (Collective Action), 2025

Social innovation as a field and approach

Social innovation basically means that people come together to create change. Change that goes beyond the interests of the individual and is aimed at the community.. Social innovation is both democratic and democratising. It is an approach that builds on principlesprinciples of maximum participation, new relationships, and giving a voice and agency to people who have not had it before. In this way, it creates both the process and the result create value for the community. Social innovation is therefore not just about new solutions, but about new opportunities, new relationships, increased resources, and strengthened capacity for more.

The story behind

The concept of social innovation first appeared in the 19th century.Initially, the concept was closely linked to socialism, but it later came to cover cooperative approaches to social reform based on shared ownership of the means of production. At the end of the 19th century, social innovation took on a more general meaning and became associated with new behaviors and new social practices in society. In the 1960s, there was a renewed focus on social innovation as a reaction to the dominant innovation paradigms focused on growth and technological development. Here, social innovation became an alternative that pointed to human, organizational, and societal change. Today, social innovation is an international approach to social development, supported by leading actors such as the UN, the EU, the World Economic Forum, and the OECD.

An international field

Social innovation is not new in Denmark. On the contrary, the modern Danish welfare society is built on social innovation. Historical movements such as the housing movement, the cooperative movement, and the trade union movement are clear examples of community-driven solutions that have shaped our society. Nevertheless, social innovation is not a widespread concept or systematic approach in Denmark today. In the rest of Europe – and globally – the picture is different. Here, the EU, OECD, and World Economic Forum, among others, are leading the way and investing heavily in social innovation and in strengthening collective action in response to complex societal challenges.

The foundation of the academy

Danish Social Innovation Academy works with social innovation in practice, as a field of knowledge and as a movement. The academy is also itself a social innovation: Here, leaders from across society to share and developlideas, knowledge, and resources ideas, knowledge, and resources. How movewe ourselves, our organisations our communities in a more sustainable direction. At the same time, we build society's capacity for social innovation through knowledge sharing, workshops, and training.

The Academy's approach to social innovation

Danish Social Innovation Academy with social innovation as a lever for social change, focusing on maximum participation, new relationships, and strengthened collective action.

At the Academy, the power for change comes from a community of leaders who are both able and willing to help move society in a better direction. Members support, inspire, and challenge each other to share and develop ideas that can be tested in their organisations, companies, municipalities, and regions—and ultimately bring about positive change throughout society. As a member, you commit to actively contributing to the activities and agendas that the Academy works with.

To ensure the best framework for social innovation, the Academy always works on the basis of shared challenges and opportunities rather than individual interests. We ensure a free and independent decision-making space, which is why there are no funding foundations on the Academy's board. The Academy does not provide ready-made solutions, but opens up new perspectives on the challenges we face as a society.

About the Academy

Five maxims for social innovation

The maxims for social innovation are rules of conduct that form the basis for our approach to change. They guide us to act in ways that create favorable conditions for social innovation to emerge and flourish.

1. Social innovation contains a relational imperative

Both the innovation process (understood as either an initiated process or a development over time) and what it leads to establish new or strengthen existing relationships. The aim is to create deep, qualitative relationships based on respect, equality, and connectedness, which make it possible to meet each other in a trusting community of action.

2. Social innovation seeks maximum participation

The people and organisations that are part of the innovation process must either possess or develop collective decision-making authority. The process must therefore ensure interaction between those affected by the desired change and those who can support change—among other things by distributing power and control so that participation extends beyond involvement and knowledge transfer.

3. Social innovation is democratic and democratizing

Social innovation processes must support democratic dialogue about what the common good is, or should be. This requires ensuring diversity in the group of people involved, equal access to participate in the dialogue, and a focus on innovation that not only addresses the collective individual needs of a group, but also extends beyond the individual and seeks the common good.

4. Social innovation connects the past, present, and future

Historical experiences and contemporary practices are part of developing a sustainable future – both for current and future generations. In working with social innovation, it is therefore crucial to take a reflexive, critical approach to the basic assumptions on which we build our society, so that they can be continuously challenged, negotiated, and imagined in new and different ways.

5. Social innovation embodies the ambition of societal transformation

Over time, social innovation changes the existing structures and logic of how our society is organized. And when social innovation begins and continues with people, it is essential to work actively to mobilize and release the collective's resources in order to create change, not only for those involved, but also organizationally, structurally, and culturally.