1267 | 48 | Identifying key factors in the emergence and development of social innovation in rural areas | Néstor Vercher; Javier Esparcia; Juan Ramón Gallego

In recent years, social innovation has attracted growing attention in rural studies to underline the social dimension of development processes. This concept allows us to set stronger emphasis on innovations that improve the social development and social competitiveness of communities, beyond a pure business, technological or market logic. Through the reconfiguration of social relations, rural communities devise new initiatives that build social and cultural capital, which will help them to adapt to external changes, become more resilient, and face key challenges such as depopulation. In this research we analyse several case studies located in rural areas of Spain and the UK. The cases are linked to agriculture, forestry and land ownership, socio-environmental conflicts, and social exclusion. We mainly implement qualitative methods (semi-structured interviews and participant observation), gathering data from more than 70 personal interviews. The aim of the study is to identify key elements in the emergence and development of social innovation in rural areas. The main findings show the importance of combining needs and opportunities when conceiving social innovation projects, the participation of public actors and the combination of bottom-up and top-down processes, and the role of facilitators and perceived neutrality. In addition, the results stress the relevance of social economy entities and collective leadership to deliver long-term and sustainable outcomes in social innovation processes. The study can inform social innovation scholars and practitioners about the set of complex factors influencing this phenomenon as well as how to better support social innovation in the field.

Néstor Vercher; Javier Esparcia; Juan Ramón Gallego
University of Valencia

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ID Abstract: 48