This article proposes a critical reflection on the concept of social innovation, arguing that it can be understood as a ‘magic concept’ as theorized by Pollitt and Hupe. It is a pervasive and positive notion in academia, policies and politics. The notion of social innovation is therefore deconstructed into the characteristics that make it so seductive: the multiplicity of meanings it can take on, its positive normative charge, its ability to generate consensus and its global marketability. This investigation underlines the way in which the understanding of social innovation may have profound repercussions in the ways in which decision-makers are reshaping urban governance.

本文提出了对社会创新概念的批判性反思，认为它可以理解为Pollitt和Hupe理论上的“魔术概念”。这是学术界，政策和政治中普遍存在的积极概念。因此，社会创新的概念被分解成使其具有如此诱人的特征：它可以具有多种含义，其积极的规范作用，其产生共识的能力以及其全球可销售性。这项调查强调了对社会创新的理解可能对决策者重塑城市治理的方式产生深远影响的方式。