Shaping social innovation by social research – The new role of the social sciences

Referring to the momentous implications of the current and constricted debate on innovation policy the paper describes the increasing importance of social innovation becoming apparent. This development is used to outline a sociologically founded, post-industrial innovation paradigm. The basic assumption is: The transition from an industrial to a knowledge- and services-based society corresponds with a paradigm shift of the innovation system. This paradigm shift also implies an increasing importance of social innovation, as compared to technological innovation. Whereas innovation used to focus primarily on natural and engineering sciences generating new products and processes, social innovation will become more and more pivotal. Consistently, the social sciences will be challenged to redefine their functions with regard to innovation.

The paper provides an overview about the roots and tracks of social science-based innovation research showing the great and increasing interest on the international level. It is shown that this development is reflected in some concepts of European and German innovation policies where key elements of an appropriate understanding can be found, nevertheless the domination of the technological paradigm keeps being valid. The paper argues that innovation is a collective learning and creation act between different actors from different sub-systems exchanging their knowledge. If social science does not reduce itself to traditional functions – this is what the last section covers – it could be a strong performer in such networks of knowledge.