President Geoffrey West, External Professors Sander van der Leeuw and David Lane, and SFI Visitor Denise Pumain have collaborated for four years to delve deeply into the scientific study of innovation and invention, using an “organization thinking” perspective instead of neo-Darwinist “population thinking,” and using a complex systems approach with its emphasis on emergence. They also seek to develop a generative approach to invention and innovation, looking in detail at the contexts within which invention and innovation occur, and how these contexts impact on the chances for success or failure. Through interesting new insights and several well-elaborated case studies, the research presented in this volume, developed in the EC-funded Project ISCOM (Information Society as a Complex System), takes off from two fundamental premises: to guide innovation policies, taking account of the social, economic and geographic dimensions of innovation processes which are at least as critical as the science and technology; and to use complex systems science as essential for understanding these dimensions. See Complexity Perspectives in Innovation and Social Change, edited by David Lane, Denise Pumain, Sander Ernst van der Leeuw, and Geoffrey West, Springer, 2009.