Challenge Social Innovation: An Introduction Hans-Werner Franz, Josef Hochgerner, and Ju ¨ rgen Howaldt Abstract The introduction to the book provides information about the coordinates and intentions of the Challenge Social Innovation Conference that took place in September 2011 in Vienna. This conference was the principal background and framework of the book presented here. The introduction highlights the focal points of the authors invited to contribute to this book. The tracks of international research on innovation demonstrate that the technology-oriented paradigm – shaped by the industrial society – does not cover the broad range of innovations indispensable in the transition from an industrial to a knowledge and services-based society: Such fundamental societal changes require the inclusion of social innovations in a paradigm shift of the innovation system. (Vienna Declaration) 1 The Challenge of the Vienna Conference When we started preparing the conference that took place in Vienna in September 2011 one hundred years after Schumpeter developed his economic theory of innovation it seemed to us a great opportunity to broaden the concept of innovation. Following the tracks of international research upon innovation it becomes more and H.-W. Franz (*) • J. Howaldt Social Research Centre, Dortmund University of Technology, Evinger Platz 17, Dortmund 44339, Germany e-mail: Franz@sfs-dortmund.de; howaldt@sfs-dortmund.de J. Hochgerner Centre for Social Innovation, Linke Wienzeile 246, Vienna 1150, Austria e-mail: hochgerner@zsi.at H.-W. Franz et al. (eds.), Challenge Social Innovation, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-32879-4_1, # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012 1