Four inspiring examples of social innovation

In this chapter we focus on four very different examples of social innovation. These have been selected both to demonstrate the enormous diversity of types of social innovation that exist today, and to test the value of the five chosen variables as significant parameters for analysing any given initiative. The cases include the world's largest global online social and environmental activism community, a hub for local networks that exchange goods and services without using money, a food bank specialised in avoiding food wastage by redistributing it to those in need and, finally, a government unit whose mission is to integrate behavioural economics into public policy to enhance social welfare.