This page has only limited features, please log in for full access.
As a response to the grand societal challenges reflected in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the transition towards sustainability has gained momentum in recent years, as has the debate on mission-orientation in innovation policy. Harnessing the positive transformation potential for innovation, is about collaboratively exploring complex and uncertain pathways, especially when the goal is sustainable local economic development. Nevertheless, the demand for participatory approaches posed by the re-emergence of mission-orientated innovation policy, and the conditions for their successful implementation at the local level, particularly in the framework of economic development, are poorly understood and not yet in the focus of the current debate. This article conceptualises participation as a new mode of governance for sustainable local economic development, and links it to mission-orientation in innovation policy. We differentiate forms, degree of involvement and target groups, as well as highlight the underlying rationales and modes of interactions. Based on action-research carried out over three years in the city of Bottrop, Germany, we conceptualise an ideal-typical practice of participatory governance. Our findings show that firms are willing to participate in sustainable local economic development, only if they can internalise at least part of the value-added.
Maria Rabadjieva; Judith Terstriep. Ambition Meets Reality: Mission-Oriented Innovation Policy as a Driver for Participative Governance. Sustainability 2020, 13, 231 .
AMA StyleMaria Rabadjieva, Judith Terstriep. Ambition Meets Reality: Mission-Oriented Innovation Policy as a Driver for Participative Governance. Sustainability. 2020; 13 (1):231.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMaria Rabadjieva; Judith Terstriep. 2020. "Ambition Meets Reality: Mission-Oriented Innovation Policy as a Driver for Participative Governance." Sustainability 13, no. 1: 231.
The paper analyses how social innovations diffuse after their initial development. By taking a practice theories’ perspective, the research suggests that social innovations diffuse through travelling elements of material, competence and meaning rather than solely through social interaction. This explains why similar social innovations, for example, urban gardening initiatives, emerge at a global scale without interaction between actors of different initiatives. It is argued that practice fields of social innovations promote the diffusion. Practice fields are bundles of similar social innovation initiatives, for example, car-sharing, urban gardening, repair cafés, etc. and facilitate the travelling of elements. Several further advantages are related to studying social innovation with a practice theories’ approach. These are amongst others the focus on activity and doing in contrast to different actors and their roles, the consideration of technology as an integral part of a practice and not as something opposed to social innovation, and the pronunciation of meaning giving credit to societal values and symbolic attributes related to social innovation.
Maria Rabadjieva; Anna Butzin. Emergence and diffusion of social innovation through practice fields. European Planning Studies 2019, 28, 925 -940.
AMA StyleMaria Rabadjieva, Anna Butzin. Emergence and diffusion of social innovation through practice fields. European Planning Studies. 2019; 28 (5):925-940.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMaria Rabadjieva; Anna Butzin. 2019. "Emergence and diffusion of social innovation through practice fields." European Planning Studies 28, no. 5: 925-940.