Promoting Social Innovation Through Neo-Endogenous Development: The Case of the Austrian Region of Muehlviertel
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59072/rper.vi59.90Keywords:
social innovation, neo-endogenous development, rural regions, Local Action Groups, AustriaAbstract
Aiming at addressing local challenges and increasing participation in decision-making, social innovation shares some common traits with the idea of neo-endogenous development that builds upon local resources and knowledge while connecting them to wider contexts. By investigating the case of the Austrian region of Muehlviertel, the paper seeks to analyse how social innovation can be promoted in a region exercising neo-endogenous rural development. Drawing from the empirical data, the paper concludes that the processes of SI are rooted in a neo-endogenous approach to the region’s development, creating region-wide multi-stakeholder networks, in which bottom-up activities are supported and nourished. However, the paper also points out some pitfalls that the regional actors face when implementing SI, ranging from bureaucratic burdens to resistance towards innovation.
References
Armstrong, H. & Taylor, J. (2000). Regional economics and policy. Wiley-Blackwell.
Beer, A., Maude, A. & Pritchard, W. (2003). Developing Australia's Regions: Theory & Practice.
UNSW Press.
BEPA (2010). Empowering People, Driving Change. Social Innovation in the European Union.
Brussels: Bureau of European Policy Advisors and European Commission.
Biczkowski, M. (2020). LEADER as a mechanism of neo-endogenous development of rural areas: the case of Poland. Miscellanea Geographica, 1(ahead-of-print). DOI: 10.2478/mgrsd-2020-0041.
Bock, B.B. (2016). Rural marginalisation and the role of social innovation; a turn towards nexoge- nous development and rural reconnection. Sociologia Ruralis, 56(4), pp.552-573. DOI: 10.1111/soru.12119.
Bosworth, G., Annibal, I., Carroll, T., Price, L., Sellick, J. & Shepherd, J. (2016). Empowering Local Action through Neo‐Endogenous Development; The Case of LEADER in England. Sociologia Ruralis, 56(3), pp.427-449. DOI:10.1111/soru.12089.
Bosworth, G., Price, L., Hakulinen, V. & Marango, S. (2020). Rural Social Innovation and Neo- endogenous Rural Development. In Cejudo, E.& Navarro, F. (eds.), Neoendogenous Development in European Rural Areas (pp. 21-32). Springer International Publishing.
Bosworth, G., Rizzo, F., Marquardt, D., Strijker, D., Haartsen, T. & Aagaard Thuesen, A. (2016). Identifying social innovations in European local rural development initiatives. Innovation: The Euro- pean Journal of Social Science Research, 29(4), pp.442-461. DOI: 10.1080/13511610.2016.1176555.
Braun, V. & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative research in psy- chology, 3(2), pp. 77-101. DOI: 10.1191/1478088706qp063oa.
Butkevičienė, E. (2009). Social innovations in rural communities: methodological framework and empirical evidence. Socialiniai mokslai, (1), pp.80-88.
Chatzichristos, G. & Nagopoulos, N. (2020). Regional Institutional Arenas for Social Innovation: A Mixed Methods Research. Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, pp.1-23. DOI: 10.1080/19420676.2019.1705378.
Christmann, G.B.(2020). Introduction: struggling with innovations. Social innovations and conflicts in urban development and planning. European Planning Studies, 28(3), pp. 423-433. DOI: 10.1080/09654313.2019.1639396.
Convery, I., Soane, I., Dutson, T. & Shaw, H. (2010). Mainstreaming LEADER delivery of the RDR in Cumbria: an interpretative phenomenological analysis. Sociologia Ruralis, 50(4), pp. 370-391. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9523.2010.00519.x.
Copus, A., Perjo, L., Berlina, A., Jungsberg, L., Randall, L. & Sigurjónsdóttir, H.R. (2017). Social innovation in local development: Lessons from the Nordic countries and Scotland. (Nordregio Working Paper). Stockholm: Nordregio. Online at: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:norden:org:diva- 4820 (accessed: 12 November 2020).
Dargan, L. & Shucksmith, M. (2008). LEADER and innovation. Sociologia Ruralis, 48(3), pp. 274- 291. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9523.2008.00463.x.
Dax, T., Strahl, W., Kirwan, J. & Maye, D. (2016). The Leader programme 2007–2013: Enabling or disabling social innovation and neo-endogenous development? Insights from Austria and Ireland. Eu- ropean Urban and Regional Studies, 23(1), pp. 56-68. DOI: 10.1177/0969776413490425.
Dax, T. & Fischer, M. (2018). An alternative policy approach to rural development in regions facing population decline. European Planning Studies, 26(2), pp. 297-315. DOI: 10.1080/09654313.2017.1361596.
Di Iacovo, F., Moruzzo, R. & Rossignoli, C.M. (2017). Collaboration, knowledge and innovation toward a welfare society: the case of the Board of Social Farming in Valdera (Tuscany), Italy. The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension, 23(4), pp. 289-311. DOI: 10.1080/1389224X.2017.1302889.
Eder, J. (2019). Innovation in the periphery: A critical survey and research agenda. International Regional Science Review, 42(2), pp.119-146. DOI: 10.1177/0160017618764279.
Esparcia, J. (2014). Innovation and networks in rural areas. An analysis from European innovative projects. Journal of Rural Studies, 34, pp.1-14. DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2013.12.004.
European Commission (2013). Social innovation research in the EU: approaches, findings and future directions, Policy Review: 64. Online at: https://ec.europa.eu/research/social- sciences/pdf/policy_re- views/social_innovation.pdf (accessed: 26 October 2020).
Eurostat, (2016). Rural development statistics by urban-rural typology. Online at: https://ec.eu- ropa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Archive:Rural_development_statistics_by_urban- rural_typology&oldid=294503 (accessed: 15 November 2019).
Eurostat, (2018). Statistics on rural areas in the EU. Online at: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics- explained/index.php?title=Statistics_on_rural_areas_in_the_EU&oldid=391832 (accessed: 23 Novem- ber 2020).
Eurostat, (2019). Database. Online at: ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database (accessed: 25 October 2019)
Gkartzios, M. & Lowe, P. (2019). Revisiting neo-endogenous rural development. In Scott, M., Gal- lent, N.& Gkartzios, M. (eds.) The Routledge companion to rural planning (pp. 159-169). Routledge.
Gobattoni, F., Pelorosso, R., Leone, A. & Ripa, M.N. (2015). Sustainable rural development: The role of traditional activities in Central Italy. Land Use Policy, 48, pp. 412-427. DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2015.06.013.
van der Ploeg, J.D. & van Dijk, G. (1995). Beyond Modernisation: The Impact of Endogenous Rural Development. Assen: Van Gorcum.
Labianca, M., De Rubertis, S., Belliggiano, A. & Salento, A. (2016). Innovation in rural development in Puglia, Italy: critical issues and potentialities starting from empirical evidence. Studies in Agricultural Economics, 118(1316-2016-102852), pp. 38-46. DOI: 10.7896/j.1531.
Lombardi, M. (2017). L’innovazione sociale nel settore agricolo del Mezzogiorno. Collana Agricol- tura e Benessere. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
Lombardi, M., Lopolito, A., Andriano, A.M., Prosperi, M., Stasi, A. & Iannuzzi, E. (2020). Network impact of social innovation initiatives in marginalised rural communities. Social Networks, 63, pp. 11- 20. DOI: 10.1016/j.socnet.2020.04.001.
Madureira, L. & Torre, A. (2019). Innovation processes in rural areas. Regional Science Policy and Practice, 11, pp. 213–218. DOI: 10.1111/rsp3.12215.
Marini Govigli, V., Alkhaled, S., Arnesen, T., Barlagne, C., Bjerck, M., Burlando, C., Melnykovych, M., Rodríguez Fernandez-Blanco, C., Sfeir, P. & Górriz-Mifsud, E. (2020). Testing a Framework to Co- Construct Social Innovation Actions: Insights from Seven Marginalized Rural Areas. Sustainability, 12(4), p.1441. DOI:10.3390/su12041441.
Maye, D., Kirwan, J. & Simpson, R. (2010). New modes of LEADER governance in Ireland. RuDI report, Work package 8, Cheltenham. Cheltenham: Countryside and Community Research Institute.
Mieg, H.A. & Töpfer, K. (eds.) (2013). Institutional and social innovation for sustainable urban development. Routledge.
Moulaert, F., MacCallum, D. and Hillier, J., (2013). Social innovation: intuition, precept, concept. in Moulaert, F., MacCallum, D., Mehmood, A. & Hamdouch, A. (eds.), The International Handbook on Social Innovation: Collective Action, Social Learning and Transdisciplinary Research (pp. 13-24). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Moulaert, F., Martinelli, F., Swyngedouw, E. & Gonzalez, S. (2005). Towards alternative model (s) of local innovation. Urban studies, 42(11), pp. 1969-1990. DOI: 10.1080=00420980500279893.
Neumeier, S. (2012). Why do social innovations in rural development matter and should they be considered more seriously in rural development research?–Proposal for a stronger focus on social inno- vations in rural development research. Sociologia ruralis, 52(1), pp. 48-69. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467- 9523.2011.00553.x.
Neumeier, S. (2017). Social innovation in rural development: identifying the key factors of success.
The geographical journal, 183(1), pp. 34-46. DOI: 10.1111/geoj.12180.
Nordberg, K., Mariussen, Å. & Virkkala, S. (2020). Community-driven social innovation and quad- ruple helix coordination in rural development. Case study on LEADER group Aktion Österbotten. Jour- nal of Rural Studies, 79, pp. 157-168. DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2020.08.001.
Noy, C. (2008). Sampling knowledge: The hermeneutics of snowball sampling in qualitative re- search. International Journal of social research methodology, 11(4), pp.327-344. DOI: 10.1080/13645570701401305.
OECD, (2006). Policy Brief: Reinventing Rural Policy. Paris: OECD.
Pike, A., Rodríguez-Pose, A. and Tomaney, J. (eds.) (2016). Local and Regional Development: Crit- ical Concepts in Geography. Routledge.
Ray, C. (2000). The EU LEADER programme: rural development laboratory. Sociologia ruralis, 40(2), pp. 163-171.
Ray, C. (2001). Transnational co‐operation between rural areas: elements of a political economy of EU rural development. Sociologia ruralis, 41(3), pp. 279-295.
Ray, C. (2006). Neo-endogenous rural development in the EU. In Cloke, P., Marsden, T. & Mooney,
P. (eds.), Handbook of rural studies (pp.278-291). SAGE Publications Ltd.
Shucksmith, M. (2010). Disintegrated rural development? Neo‐endogenous rural development, plan- ning and place‐shaping in diffused power contexts. Sociologia ruralis, 50(1), pp. 1-14. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9523.2009.00497.x.
Slee, B. (2019). An inductive classification of types of social innovation. Scottish Affairs, 28(2), pp.152-176. DOI: 10.3366/scot.2019.0275.
Tomaney, J., Pike, A. & Rodriques-Pose, A. (2011). Local and regional development, in Pike, A., Rodriguez-Pose, A. &, Tomaney, J. (eds.), Handbook of local and regional development (pp. 618-630). Routledge.
Vercher, N., Barlagne, C., Hewitt, R., Nijnik, M. & Esparcia, J. (2021). Whose Narrative is it Any- way? Narratives of Social Innovation in Rural Areas–A Comparative Analysis of Community‐Led Ini- tiatives in Scotland and Spain. Sociologia Ruralis, 61(1), pp. 163-189. DOI: 10.1111/soru.12321.
Živojinović, I., Weiss, G., Wilding, M., Wong, J.L.G. & Ludvig, A. (2020). Experiencing forest products–An innovation trend by rural entrepreneurs. Land Use Policy, 94, p. 104506. DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104506.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 RPER
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
RPER is the official journal of the 