Abstract/Summary

This book is the result of a three-day Book Sprint, a collaborative writing session, and is intended as an introduction to Collective Awareness Platforms for Sustainability and Social Innovation (CAPS). The acronym is a working definition referring to an interdisciplinary research and action programme for social innovation. This programme aims at tackling societal challenges through innovative and empowering online platforms. The rationale of the book is to provide an entry point both to the ongoing EC funded CAPS projects and to the main nodes of a CAPS initiative. It is both an informative and an operational instrument, aimed at: a. Defining the CAPS action field; b. Creating awareness around CAPS and disseminating the CAPS projects' core activities; and c. Stimulating the birth of new CAPS initiatives. The readers of this publication can choose for themselves where to start reading, for examples: the general interest reader may want to start from section 2 'Framing CAPS', whereas practitioners may take section 3 'Overview of the First CAPS Projects' as their starting point, to jump into CAPS future and existing tools.