Social Innovation: An Instrument to Achieve the Sustainable Development of Communities

Ravazzoli, Elisa; Valero, Diana E

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-71061-7_108-1

Cited by 10 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Positive impacts lead to concrete benefits for the communities in which the SI has taken place [52]: they can be related to the reduction of different forms of marginalization [6,7], to the promotion of sustainable development, and at targeting sustainability challenges [10,53]. As rural marginalization is "part of a broader process of social change, affecting society at large, and not particular to marginal localities [per se]" [16], SI can have several positive effects on social, cultural, and human capital (e.g., increase social relations, boost self-organization and resilience, improve skills) [42,54].…”

Section: Types Of Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can Social Innovation Make a Change in European and Mediterranean Marginalized Areas? Social Innovation Impact Assessment in Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry, and Rural Development

Ravazzoli

Torre

Re³

et al. 2021

Sustainability

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Social innovation (SI) impacts are long-term changes that affect different dimensions of territorial capital (i.e., economy, society, environment, governance) for the territory in which SI occurs. Yet, systematic empirical evidence and theoretically sound assessments of the impacts of SI are scarce. This paper aims to fill the gap and assess the different aspects of SI’s impacts in European and Mediterranean areas that are characterized by marginalization processes. To assess the impacts of SI in marginalized areas, we use the evaluation framework developed within the Social Innovation in Marginalized Rural Areas (SIMRA) Horizon 2020 project and apply it to nine SI initiatives related to the fields of agriculture, fisheries, forestry, and rural development. Our findings show that SI produces cross-sectoral (societal, economic, environmental, and governmental) and multi-level impacts (on individuals, community, and society), which have improved the societal well-being, and contributed to the reduction of certain forms of marginality, mainly inside the territory in which SI occurred.

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Section: Types Of Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can Social Innovation Make a Change in European and Mediterranean Marginalized Areas? Social Innovation Impact Assessment in Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry, and Rural Development

Ravazzoli

Torre

Re³

et al. 2021

Sustainability

Self Cite

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show abstract

“…SDGs recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand in hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, enhance economic growth through affordable and clean energy, promote innovation and enhance infrastructure, promote responsible consumption and production, while at the same time tackle climate change and preserve the ecological condition of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. SI is thus considered a key component in fulfilling the SDGs milestones by 2030 (Millard, 2018;Ravazzoli & Valero L opez, 2020).…”

Section: Sustainable Development Goalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The green side of social innovation: Using sustainable development goals to classify environmental impacts of rural grassroots initiatives

et al. 2022

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Social innovations are grassroots processes aiming to achieve impacts beyond an individual level and towards a broader societal good. The environmental dimension of impacts refers to any direct change to the environment resulting from social innovation activities, products, or services, which are not addressed by preexisting systems. In this paper, we determine the role of social innovation in addressing environmental impacts by analyzing a database of social innovation examples in European and circum-Mediterranean rural areas, compiled within the H2020 Project SIMRA. We conceptualize the overall aim of environmentallyfocused social innovation initiatives as furthering the sustainable development of their territories. To address the environmental impacts of initiatives in a structured way, we use the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) classification, to describe social innovation environmental impacts in relation to specific targets.We analyzed 238 initiatives from the SIMRA catalog and associated initiative websites to identify and classify their direct environmental impacts. Our results indicate that 68% of the cases have at least one direct environmental impact that aligns with a SDG target. The most common impacts are related to sustainable natural resource management (SDGs target 12.2), sustainable food production systems (2.4), and equal access to land (2.3). This SDG-based classification proved to be a useful analytical tool for categorizing internationally policy-relevant environmental impacts of social innovations.

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“…Our understanding of SI is that of "the reconfiguring of social practices, in response to societal challenges, which seeks to enhance outcomes on societal well-being and necessarily includes the engagement of civil society actors" [9]. In this sense, SI contributes to the sustainable development of communities through the provision of innovative products and services that answer emerging needs of communities, and by enabling processes of change aimed at increasing the welfare, well-being, and empowerment of communities [2,41].…”

Section: Potential Of Social Innovation For Communities' Sustainable Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Are the Impacts of Social Innovation? A Synthetic Review and Case Study of Community Forestry in the Scottish Highlands

et al. 2021

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In a context of political and economic austerity, social innovation has been presented as a solution to many social challenges, old and new. It aims to support the introduction of new ideas in response to the current urgent needs and challenges of vulnerable groups and seems to offer promising solutions to the challenges faced by rural areas. Yet the evidence base of the impacts on the sustainable development of rural communities remains scarce. In this paper, we explore social innovation in the context of community forestry and provide a brief synthetic review of key themes linking the two concepts. We examine a case of social innovation in the context of community forestry and analyse its type, extent, and scale of impact in a marginalized rural area of Scotland. Using an in-depth case study approach, we apply a mixed research methodology using quantitative indicators of impact as well as qualitative data. Our results show that social innovation reinforces the social dimension of community forestry. Impacts are highlighted across domains (environmental, social, economic, and institutional/governance) but are mainly limited to local territory. We discuss the significance of those results in the context of community forestry as well as for local development. We formulate policy recommendations to foster and sustain social innovation in rural areas.

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Social Innovation: An Instrument to Achieve the Sustainable Development of Communities

Cited by 10 publications

References 20 publications

Can Social Innovation Make a Change in European and Mediterranean Marginalized Areas? Social Innovation Impact Assessment in Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry, and Rural Development

Can Social Innovation Make a Change in European and Mediterranean Marginalized Areas? Social Innovation Impact Assessment in Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry, and Rural Development

The green side of social innovation: Using sustainable development goals to classify environmental impacts of rural grassroots initiatives

What Are the Impacts of Social Innovation? A Synthetic Review and Case Study of Community Forestry in the Scottish Highlands

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