How to frame the governance dimension of social innovation: theoretical considerations and empirical evidence

If the development of grand challenges requires the establishment of new multi-actor implementation structures and arrangements to improve the delivery of public services, social innovation is a strategy that governments are using more and more to deal with emerging societal challenges. Nevertheless, the call for a more robust analytical framework has been made in order to enable evaluation of the growing number and types of socially innovative practices implemented in different European contexts. This article takes up this challenge by assuming the governance perspective on social innovation, i.e. the establishment of new implementation arrangements in relations between the public and non-profit sectors. Drawing on the public governance literature, the article describes a three-step methodology with which to design and implement socially innovative oriented governance, and it illustrates an empirical application to the issue of refugee integration. The article argues that the proposed methodology is suitable both for assessing if and to what extent civil society organizations are actually involved in horizontal and cooperative relations with public actors when new implementation tasks are required, and for guiding scholars and practitioners in investigating what in the governance process needs to be improved to achieve socially innovative governance within a public policy process.