Building and nurturing grassroots innovation: A policy framework based on the local commons

ABSTRACT

Innovation policies are increasingly questioned by researchers and policymakers in the face of the changing economy and with regards to the role played by local grassroots initiatives in driving structural change at the regional level. This paper aims to enrich existing policy frameworks by emphasizing the notion of local commons as a means to drive local innovation dynamics. Building on this latter concept, two policies are presented to supplement existing policy agendas: community-based policies and experience-based policies. The paper argues that these two types of policies may offer complementary ways to assist local communities in local discovery processes, thus opening new paths for inclusive growth and development.

KEYWORDS:

• Innovation policy
• grassroots innovation
• commons
• community-based policy
• experience-based policy

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Our methodology rests on the theory adaptation research design for conceptual papers as described by Jaakkola (2020).