Chapter 1: Social Innovation: Concept and Theories -- Chapter 2: Cooperatives and Social Innovation: A Critical Review -- Chapter 3: Democratizing Capital: Building Union-Coop Partnerships through Economically Targeted Investing and Crowd Funding Innovations -- Chapter 4: Cooperative and Social Innovation in Finance – A Case Study of Mann Deshi Mahila Sahkari Bank -- Chapter 5: Cooperative Sector Grading – A Social Innovation in Finance -- Chapter 6: Social Innovative Enterprises: Ubiquitous Cooperatives in the State of Tamil Nadu, India -- Chapter 7: Social Innovations in Organic Foods in Rainfed India: The case of Dharani FaM Coop Ltd -- Chapter 8: A Phenomenological Study of the Lived Experiences of PHCCI Summer Youth Program Tutees Turned LabCoop Officers -- Chapter 9: Social Media as an Effective Tool for Social Innovation in Indian Cooperatives -- Chapter 10: Community-based Tourism through Co-operatives in Sabah, Malaysia -- Chapter 11: “Inefficient” Locally Produced Biodiesel Effective following the Great East Japan Earthquake -- Chapter 12: Role of Cooperatives in Climate Smart Agriculture -- Chapter 13: Commitment of Co-operative Workers on the Movement: The Case of Japanese Consumers Co-op -- Chapter 14: Worker Co-operatives: Solution to the Issue of Contractualization in the Philippines -- Chapter 15: Health insurance as social innovation for farmers in cooperatives: Lessons from Yeshasvini in Karnataka, India -- Chapter 16: Creating space for women leadership and participation through innovative strategies: A case of tribal women’s dairy cooperative in south Gujarat in India -- Chapter 17: Social Innovation by Cooperatives during Covid19 pandemic -- Chapter 18: Cooperatives and Social Innovation: Towards a conclusion.

This book discusses social innovations by cooperatives from the Asia and Pacific region. Social innovations emerge when the state and market in developing countries find it difficult to solve problems such as poverty, hunger, ill health, poor education systems, inadequate drinking water and poor sanitation. These countries also face barriers to economic growth such as climate change, poor governance, unequal opportunities and social exclusion. This volume therefore addresses the following questions. What are the distinctive features of social innovations by cooperatives? How social innovations bring in changes in the process and outcome of development? After presenting theories of social innovation and a critical review of cooperatives and social innovation, the book presents 15 chapters on social innovations by cooperatives in the Asia Pacific region. These social innovations are related to health insurance, community based tourism, disaster response, climate smart agriculture, use of social media for youth empowerment, training for the emergence of second-line leaders in cooperatives, social inclusion through innovative finance, profitable marketing of organic produce to strengthen economic status of small farmers, digital auction and value addition for income security of farmer members, collaboration between cooperative members and workers for the mutual benefit, worker cooperatives, women leadership and participation, building union-cooperative partnership in finance and rating of cooperatives to promote transparency and accountability. A chapter on innovative services of cooperatives during the time of Covid19 is also included. This volume will be quite significant for co-operators, researchers, teachers, practitioners and policy-makers at the global level. The theme is relevant for international development community and national cooperatives with concern for their communities, which is the seventh cooperative principle of International Cooperative Alliance and the Sustainable Development Goal of the UN. “…most of the literature has addressed the nonprofits or the third sector at large. This book is a unique collection of theoretical papers written specifically for this purpose as well as cases of social innovations by cooperatives to solve problems at the local and higher levels from the region… A wide range of social innovations in the areas of finance, health, agriculture, climate change, consumer, marketing and worker welfare, empowerment of women and youth are covered…” - Prof. Akira Kurimoto, Chairperson of the ICA Asia Pacific Research Committee and Hosei University, Tokyo, Japan. “… discusses the new concept of social innovation and brings out the social innovation practices in cooperatives… consists of papers that have undertaken an in-depth analysis of cooperatives particularly in the area of social innovation… covers interesting areas on social innovations in cooperatives relating to finance, grading of cooperatives, social media to promote cooperative movement, tourism, producer, consumer, climate smart agriculture, health insurance and women leadership…” - Dr. Chandra Pal Singh Yadav, President, National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI); Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha), Government of India. “… this book will contribute to more innovations by Cooperatives in the field and will help the members of Cooperatives functioning in different sectors of the economy…” - Kadakampally Surendran, Minister for Co-operation Tourism & Devaswoms, Government of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, India.