Identifying social innovations in European local rural development initiatives

Abstract

Social innovation is attracting increasing attention in research and policy, heightened by continuing austerity across Europe. Therefore, this paper examines earlier research into community-led local development (CLLD) initiatives in rural areas of Europe to develop our understanding of the meaning and scope of rural social innovation. We draw on a Schumpeterian view where innovations emerge from new combinations of resources that bring about positive changes and create value in society. A Schumpeterian social innovation framework is derived as the basis for re-analysing data from previous evaluations of LEADER policy in five different national contexts. This elicits a clearer understanding of social innovation in a rural development context, identifying different processes and outcomes that create social value. As the CLLD agenda and the demand for innovation in Europe gather pace, our aspirations are to inform future research and other initiatives on how to integrate social innovation into the design and evaluation of new rural development policies and programmes.

Keywords:

• social innovation
• rural development
• LEADER
• community-led local development
• rural policy

Notes

1. LEADER (an acronym of its French title Liaisons entre Actions de Développement de L’Economie Rural – Links Between Actions for the Development of the Rural Economy) was launched as part of the EU’s rural development policy in 1991 as an area-based and bottom-up approach to rural development.

2. Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on support for rural development by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005.

3. A LAG is a locally based group of volunteers tasked with promoting the availability of funding for rural development activities, selecting projects according to parameters established at their inception and working with other accountable bodies to oversee the progress of projects within their local territories. For more information, see the LAG Handbook (European Commission 2007).

Additional information

Funding

This work draws on projects supported by the UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs under [Grant RE0254]; The Academy of Finland, under contract no. [122027]; and The Danish Ministry of Food Agriculture and Fisheries [no grant number].