Citizen Innovation as Niche Restoration – A Type of Social Innovation and Its Relevance for Political Participation and Sustainability

ABSTRACT

There have been many creative responses to modern economic, political and technological developments and their (un)intended social and ecological consequences. These responses provide the soil for the type of social innovation identified in this article: citizen innovation as niche restoration. It is about civic action that creates novelty by seeking to restore the places and practices citizens already value. Drawing from an in-depth case study on decentralized water management, the concept of citizen innovation as niche restoration is explored, and its implications for political participation and sustainability discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Social innovation
• capability approach
• participation
• niche management
• grassroots innovation

Acknowledgments

This paper has benefited from a discussion at ISIRC, September 2016 in Glasgow as well as discussions within the CrESSI research project, especially the work packages seven (co-ordinated by the University of Pavia) and two (co-ordinated by the University of Heidelberg). My biggest thank you is to the IKT and the many people who have generously shared their time during the field research that this paper draws from.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. For a longer version, see Ziegler (forthcoming), Wer zur Quelle will, muss gegen den Strom schwimmen. The manuscript is available upon request (in German language).

2. See https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/niche, last accessed 28 April 2017.

3. For in-depth discussions of the developments only sketched here, see Juuti and Katko (2005) and Sedlak (2014), and the comprehensive freshwater case study in CrESSI WP 5 (Scheuerle et al. 2016).

4. Just for the expansion of the waste water part, the government of Bavaria estimates to have spent 33 billion Euro (excluding expenditures for operation and maintenance) on a network of 90,000 km of wastewater canals connecting 96% of Bavarians to a central wastewater plant (Bayerisches Landesamt für Umwelt 2010).

Additional information

Funding

Seventh Framework Programme [grant number 613261].