This book marries two ideas that donít usually go hand-in-hand: innovation and community.  Innovation is the stuff of technology and commerce; scientific breakthroughs that lead to exciting new products, services, and businesses that spread rapidly across the globe, change our lives, and create instant billionaires.  The communities in which we live, meanwhile, seem slow to change, tortoises to innovationís hares.  They guard rather than risk the future, valuing the continuity that protects successive generations more than the discontinuity that disturbs the status quo.  They are driven by messy factors such
as social values, local history, and politics, not just the logic of the scientific method and market efficiency.  They are deeply rooted in particular settings, and so are place-bound, not globe-trotting. They are a necessity, not a thrill; and like the air that gives us life, we come to take them for granted.

But as we race into the 21st century, communities are seeking innovation and innovations are finding communities.  Social innovation is springing into life in placesó the development and application of new ideas to education, transportation, business venture, land-use and other social systems in communities.  In recent years, academic researchers, philanthropic foundations, social activists, public policymakers, and ìsocially responsibleî investors are paying greater attention to the need for more innovation that improves social conditions.  At the same time, demand is surging in communities for bold changes to keep up with a fast-changing world.