Socially Innovative Initiatives in Deprived Rural Areas of Germany, Ireland and Portugal: Exploring Empowerment and Impact on Community Development

Abstract

In many (remote) rural areas of Europe and the world, rural communities are facing various challenges. One response is residents leaving their communities. However, there are also many empirical examples of residents staying, launching project initiatives, developing new solutions and experimenting with new practices. This is what we call social innovation. What experiences do actors have in these processes? Can we speak of empowerment? To what extent can such initiatives have an impact on community development? In this article, we explore these questions, for which there is little related empirical research. By applying a multi-sited individualising comparison to case studies in three European countries (Germany, Ireland and Portugal), we obtain empirical evidence of the following dimensions of empowerment that Avelino et al. outline conceptually: the achievement of autonomy, competence and relatedness and also impact, meaning and resilience. Often, however, it is not the individual actors for whom such effects can be reported. Rather, the social initiative as such or the local administration has acquired new skills and autonomy. Regarding community development, ‘pathways to impact’, such as infrastructure improvements and/or the creation of new employment opportunities and/or the influx of new residents, could be identified. However, this development often depended on both opportunity and the cooperation and goodwill of many stakeholders.

Valuation in Rural Social Innovation Processes—Analysing Micro-Impact of a Collaborative Community in Southern Italy

“…Social innovation addresses a research phenomenon that is still very broadly defined. In this paper, we follow the argumentation of Christmann et al [18] in this special issue, who refer to social innovation as processes in which social actors collaboratively create novel solutions to collectively perceived problems. As such, social innovation is associated with novel practices that break with previous ones [2,19].…”

“…In the context of rural regions, social innovation may comprise, for instance, new ideas, processes, services, novel or improved actions, routines, and practices that may lead to ecologically, socially, and economically sustainable societies [20]. Most frequently, it is the character of social innovation to achieve goals by new forms of organising, regulating, or lifestyles [18].…”

“…Impact as transforming social conditions: Social innovations are frequently expected to be socially accepted, relevant, and appropriate-at least by those involved in and engaged with the related processes. Hence, the impact of social innovation may be understood as processes of spatial and social renewal and change by addressing societal challenges and unmet social needs and by empowering social actors to foster such processes of change [18,23,24]. Following the above definition of social innovation, 'society' stakeholders [11] are engaged in processes of social innovation for fostering, for example, social learning in order to increase the local communities' self-reliance and sustainability [20].…”