Influence of Socio-economic determinants on the active involvement of agents implementers of Social Innovation : the Case Study of VàZapp ' in Apulia region 2 (original) (raw)
Related papers
2020
Although the concept of SI in agriculture is relatively recent, EU has already shown interest in the approach and a willingness to invest in innovative social projects. In the field of agriculture, the most common social innovation initiatives that have emerged in the latest years are either linked to social farming or community supported agriculture. These initiatives aim at exploiting the multifunctionality of agriculture activities, coupling productive agricultural activities with educational, caregiving, or inclusive services, in the former; and connecting consumers and producers in direct informal relationships in the latter. Despite the growing interest in social innovation in the field of agriculture, literature lacks validated tools for evaluating social innovations. This work provides an empirical application of the evaluation approach to the SI in Marginalised Rural Areas as developed by the SIMRA consortium. It is as a pilot experience which demonstrates as the evaluation...
Social Entrepreneurship in Agriculture a Sustainab
This article pursues an innovative dimension of social entrepreneurship in the agricultural sector that keeps rural areas viable, so-called social farming. Social entrepreneurship appears as an essential driver in the European economy and it heads toward new opportunities mainly through its impact on social integration, economic sustainability, and fair society. Social farming and social farms can successfully respond to the challenge of social exclusion and lack of social services provision and other opportunities in rural areas through alternative therapeutic activities, sheltered working places or integrative educational activities in a farm environment. From this perspective, a social farm should correspond to the definition of a social enterprise. By introducing the basic frames of social entrepreneurship and social farming in general and in the Czech Republic, and by concentrating on fifteen Czech social farms, this paper presents an insight into this retro-innovative practice of social integration systems in the countryside. It mainly answers the question, whether social farming complies fully with social entrepreneurship stream, and it explores the role of the social farm in rural development by using semi-structured and in-depth interviews.
Network Impact of Social Innovation Initiatives in Marginalised Rural Communities
Social Networks, 2020
The marginalised rural communities are characterised by societal challenges, such as isolation, lack of job opportunities, land abandonment, low quality of life and generally low education. Social Innovation (SI) initiatives may represent an opportunity to strengthen relationships among the members of rural community, by means of the alteration of the existing social networks. In this way, more exchange of information is expected, paving the way for the creation of professional collaborations among firms and other actors. This paper aims at proposing a short-term evaluation framework of effectiveness of a SI initiative in terms of reconfiguration of the social network structure. The described empirical case study is VàZapp', a rural hub located in Southern Italy, which provides innovative solutions to activate social relations amongst farmers, altering hence their network. A well-referenced SI theoretical model, developed within the H2020 project SIMRA (Social Innovation in Marginalised Rural Areas), and the methodology of Social Network Analysis (SNA) were used to verify and measure quantitative and qualitative indicators affected by network intervention activated by VàZapp' initiative. Results show that this SI initiative worked effectively, leading to a +308% in the number of relations and +250% in social network density. In addition, an evident improvement in the quality of the social relations was found, especially in cases where there are direct engagements within VàZapp'. Outcomes suggest that supporting and promoting SI initiatives could become a central discussion point for the rethinking of rural development policies focused on regeneration of social relations' structure.
BOOSTING SI´S SOCIAL & ECONOMIC IMPACT
Several key issues need to be addressed in order to tackle social innovation challenges within the European economic sphere and its policy environment. Gaining a better understanding of the components, objectives and principles of social innovation, as well as the underlying processes and contexts of social innovations is at the core of the EU-funded FP7 project SIMPACT «Boosting the Impact of Social Innovation across Europe through Economic Underpinnings». Building on three years of research, stakeholder engagement and innovative thinking, with this booklet the SIMPACT team invites you to share its insights and practical tools developed for policymakers, social innovators, intermediaries and other stakeholders. We begin by SIMPACT’s theoretical considerations that emphasize economic ef ciency and social effectiveness in the context of social innovation. It is argued that marginalised and vulnerable groups constitute a social and economic potentiality whose actions and behaviours can be analysed and built into social innovation simulation models (SECTION 1). SECTION 2 introduces SIMPACT’s broad concept of social innovation components, objectives and principles and provides a typology of social innovations along four distinct dimensions: user and bene ciary involvement, form of organisation, social innovation thematic eld and scope of activities. The core features of social innovation Business Models and their categorisation in support of social innovators, service design tools and Business Models are discussed in SECTION 3. SECTION 4 addresses the question of what constitutes a favourable, inspiring and productive environment for social innovation. The section elaborates on the notion of «Social Innovation Ecosystem» and proposes a model comprised of two subsystems that address issues associated with SI «enabling & supporting environment» and «problem constellation». SECTION 5 discusses the problems of mainstreaming social innovations into the economic sphere through successive stages of spread and growth and emphasizes the necessity to take social innovations from the micro- to the macro- level. Drivers and barriers as well as scaling mechanisms such as open/closed scaling up and out are discussed and further elaborated in this section. The question of how to stimulate and sustain social innovation by envisaging different policy and governance models in addressed in SECTION 6. SECTION 7 encompasses indicators sets and relevant tours that are needed to measure social innovation and assess its ex ante impact at different social innovation phases and stages. To successfully shape future transition processes from micro level social innovation activities to the solution of macro level socioeconomic challenges it is necessary to better harness the societal and economic potential of the many dispersed local social innovations. In this vein, SECTION 8 addresses the interplay of social innovation, welfare state and market. This includes to critically re ect and advance our welfare regimes and governing institutions with regard to social innovations’ impact on institutional change. Also, it is to be acknowledged that social innovations’ contribution to inclusive growth is essentially based on open innovation models characterised by distinct forms of interactions which, in turn, require behavioural shifts at the level civil society, public and private sectors.
Social Innovation in Agriculture and Food
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2018
In the literature and in current public discourse, innovation is usually taken to mean technological innovation, which is carried out through the figure of the entrepreneur. This editorial introduction first goes back to the emergence of the notion of social innovation, dedicated to including other processes, actors and purposes. It reminds us that the notion has been shaped by the crises that faced societies from the 1970s and presents the two fields of research that have anchored the notion in different theoretical positions. We highlight how the food and agricultural sector illustrates the three current meanings of social innovation, despite the fact that the general literature on social innovation usually focuses only on a few types of initiatives. We explain how the papers of this special issue demonstrate that agriculture and food represent an exemplary empirical terrain to push forward thinking in the field, such as the need for a better understanding of 'social innovation in the making' or of the processes of innovation scaling. This introduction thus not only consolidates a collection of contributions to the area of research on social innovation in the sociology of agriculture and food, but it also frames a new and potential contribution of sociology to the literature on social innovation. Innovation covers a wide range of practices and processes, but despite this, from public perceptions to policy and science, innovation often is conceived of from the angle of technological innovation. In other words, what is new consists of new products, methods of production or processes more efficient than the existing . Moreover, innovation is supposed to be due to entrepreneurs, as central actors developing (technological) inventions and placing them in the market, in the line of thought of Schumpeter (1912). First appearing in the 1970s, the notion of social innovation was conceived as an opening of these notions to include other processes, actors, values and results. In an initially very critical posture opposing technical progress and its impacts, the concept has come into its own through more diverse approaches. The multiplication of prolonged crises at the beginning of the 21st Century sparked opposing reactions: on the one hand, a renewed interest in social innovation and the participatory innovative processes it encompasses began to be seen around the world ; on the other hand, some academics critiqued social innovation as an 'institutional notion' that masks the disengagement of States from social
Sustainability
Social innovation is considered a relevant concept to tackle societal challenges and needs in rural areas and to promote smart, inclusive and sustainable growth. The characterising sector of rural areas is agriculture; therefore, the focus of this paper is on social innovation in the field of social farming. Among the many factors leading to the emergence and development of social innovation, agency has been considered relevant in the literature on transformability and transformative social innovation as it is the ability to turn contextual difficulties into opportunities for social innovation and for inclusive growth. This paper proposes an evaluation framework to assess the different dimensions of agency by triangulating quantitative with qualitative data and by using indicators. This paper adopts a case study approach, analysing two cases of social farming in Italy and the Netherlands. The results show that the social innovation idea and the resilience of the agency are among the...
Sisp 2019_ Call for paper_ Social Innovation
Sisp 2019_ Call for paper, 2019
Società Italiana di Scienza Politica (SISP)_ 2019 Annual Meeting_ Call for paper related to the panel on Urban Social Innovation (coordinated by Alteri-Cirulli-Raffini)