Social Innovation in Rural Regions: Urban Impulses and Cross‐Border Constellations of Actors

Abstract

Research on social innovation in rural regions is gaining momentum. However, the question where new impulses for innovation in rural regions are being created remains unanswered. This article argues that social innovation processes in rural regions can be inspired by cross‐border constellations of actors and do, at times, build on bodies of knowledge and practices widespread in urban areas. Ethnographic data from Germany's rural Eifel region in Rhineland‐Palatinate, Lower Lusatia, and the Uckermark region located in Brandenburg illustrates the way in which external urban factors and cross‐border constellations of actors can influence rural social innovation. Thereby, rural social innovation stimulates the intersection of rural and urban elements (strengthening rural‐urban relations) and the erosion of rural‐urban antagonisms.

New Farming as an Example of Social Innovation Responding to Challenges of Inner Mountain Areas of Italian Alps

“…From a constructivist perspective on social innovation, it remains unclear where new impulses originate (Noak et al 2018). Differently to the concept of territorial innovation by Zanon, according to which mountains can principally rely on endogenous assets, we assert that mountain innovation needs the synergy between the endogenous potential and impulses that most likely emanate from the outside (Neumeier, 2012).…”

Local Development Initiatives as Promoters of Social Innovation: Evidence from Two European Rural Regions

“…The importance of cross-border constellations of actors in the process of the development and promotion of SI projects is supported in the academic discourse (e.g. Noack, Federwisch 2019). For the Austrian case, the results show that, during the early 1990s, some municipalities in the Mühlviertel region came together to develop a set of measures to promote regional collaboration.…”

Social Innovation in Rural Regions: Older Adults and Creative Community Development*

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