An exploration of potential growth pathways of social innovations in rural Europe

Abstract

This paper explores the range of expansion/development/growth pathways (or scaling) that might occur with social innovations, with reference to social innovation in rural areas. It explores the lack of a clear conceptualization of both social innovation as a phenomenon and the possible growth and expansion pathways that might arise. Based on a survey of the diverse literature on the expansion/development/growth pathways of social innovations, and illustrated primarily by European examples, the paper develops a typology built around an attempted synthesis of the extant typologies found in published literature. Different theories of rural development are employed to help explain the divergent development pathways that might be anticipated in rural areas.

Keywords:

• social innovation
• marginal rural areas
• growth
• development

Acknowledgement

The project on which this paper is based has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement [677622].

Notes

1 Terms used include growth, development, expansion, spiral, scaling, up-scaling and out-scaling.

2 We are indebted to Robert Lukesch of OAR for helpful suggestions regarding these categories.