Denmark is famous for its large and inclusive welfare system. In Denmark, where institutions generally function well and where everyone receives the same amount and level of services, social innovation is a lot more about supplementing or improving existing public sector-led initiatives. 

The need for social innovation arises as the Danish welfare system is beginning to have problems with providing a satisfactory level of support for its citizens due to its ageing population. Furthermore, the Danish welfare state might be one of the best in the world in terms of providing food on the table, clothes and roof over the head for its citizens but some critics argue that it has been less successful at providing its citizens with a sense of inclusion, purpose, connectedness and belonging. So, whereas material poverty is hard to find in Denmark, social poverty certainly is not.

Social innovation is time and context specific. That means it can mean different things in different context. What might not seem innovative in one country, may be ground breaking in another. The political and cultural background is important to understand. There are also a wide variety of organisations involved in this field, each have different perspectives. So, the purpose of this page is to demonstrate a variety of views on what social innovation means to different kinds of organisations in Denmark.