Can Social Innovation Make a Change in European and Mediterranean Marginalized Areas? Social Innovation Impact Assessment in Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry, and Rural Development
Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: 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.
Source: Sustainability
DOI: 10.3390/su13041823
Authors: Elisa Ravazzoli, Cristina Dalla Torre, Riccardo Da Re, Valentino Marini Govigli, Laura Secco, Elena Górriz-Mifsud, Elena Pisani, Carla Barlagne, Antonio Baselice, Mohammed Bengoumi, Marijke Dijskhoorn-Dekker, Arbia Labidi, Antonio Lopolito, Mariana Melnykovych, Manfred Perlik, Nico Polman, Simo Sarkki, Achilleas Vassilopoulos, Phoebe Koundouri, David Miller, Thomas Streifeneder, Maria Nijnik
Institutions: Eurac Research, University of Padua, European Forest Institute, Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia, James Hutton Institute, University of Foggia, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Wageningen University & Research, National Research Institute of Rural Engineering, Water and Forests, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, University of Bern, University of Oulu, University of Ioannina, Athens University of Economics and Business
Language: English
Subfield: Geography, Planning and Development
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,052
OpenAlex ID: W3127599566