ABSTRACT
Introduction Innovation is an imperative of public policy. In a time of resource-constrained governments, the innovation of public services has become a sine qua non of keeping up with society’s needs. Yet little attention has been given to its ipside: taking risks. More generally, risk, and how to manage it, has become a central theme of the social sciences: see, for instance, Taylor-Gooby and Zinn’s (2006) edited collection of social science writing on risk. Firmly grounded in the actuarial sciences and engineering, social science scholars have acknowledged the importance of how risk is perceived, constructed and managed. This ranges from classical nancial risk management to the elds of public health, disaster studies, sociology, social policy, political science and the health and safety studies (Taylor-Gooby and Zinn 2006). In this chapter, we will narrow our focus to the relationship between risk and social innovation in a public policy context.
