Evaluation of social innovation in marginalised rural areas: potential, challenges and a methodological proposal based on Italian case studies.

Social innovation is an emerging topic, identified in the EU Strategy 2020 as one of the crucial, intangible factors required to promote smart, inclusive and sustainable growth. It provides society with a renovated role by considering it \u2013 in a time of major public budgetary constraints - an effective way of responding to social challenges through the mobilisation of people\u2019s creativity, the promotion of an innovative and learning society and the creation of the social dynamics behind technological innovations (BEPA, 2011: 7). Although it initially focused on addressing social disadvantage and exclusion in a wide range of contexts, urban more often than rural, an unambiguous definition of social innovation has not been agreed on yet (Moulaert et al. 2005; MacCallum et al. 2009). Likewise, so far only a few scholars have proposed how to interpret the concept in the rural arena (e.g. Neumeier, 2012; Bosworth et al. 2016; Bock et al. 2016). A recent proposed definition of social innovation in relation to rural areas with specific limitations in terms of geographical location and/or socio-economic conditions, comes from a 4-year research project named SIMRA (Social Innovation in Marginalised Rural Areas) and funded under the EU Horizon2020 Programme. Such proposed definition by Polman et al. (2017) states that social innovation is \u201cthe 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\u201d. To date, a catalogue of more than 50 examples of social innovation that have been identified according to this definition, in the sectors of agriculture, forestry and rural development in marginalised rural areas in EU and extra-EU Mediterranean countries (Bryce et al. 2017), has been compiled and published online. The catalogue is neither fix nor comprehensive, rather it provides an initial overview on how large the variety of social innovation cases already implemented can be. On the one hand, social innovation is probably more widespread than reported by scientific literature and perceived by practitioners today. This may be because the concept refers de facto to a wide range of initiatives dealing with different societal challenges: from the new social uses of agricultural and forestry activities (e.g., social horticulture or social farming, nursery services in forests, forest therapy), to the creation of new networks based on public-private partnerships for the production, transformation and commercialisation of new agricultural products and services, to the involvement of migrants and refugees in the management of peri-urban green areas, to several others. On the other hand, our knowledge and understanding of social innovation and related socio-economic dynamics remains very limited. It has been already stated that a commonly accepted definition and theoretical conceptualisation are under construction. Besides, specific policy instruments are still lacking, and a method to comprehensively evaluate social innovation in terms of its effectiveness, efficiency, relevance and impacts on society, economy, environment and institutions is also not available yet. According to the SIMRA project proposal, key elements of social innovation to be evaluated are: the \u201ctrigger\u201d; the \u201cperceived context\u201d; the \u201cagency/actors\u201d acting for change; the \u201creconfiguring\u201d process of social practices (included networks, governance arrangements and attitudes); the \u201creconfigured\u201d new situation that brings about a social innovation project; the \u201cactivities\u201d, \u201coutputs\u201d and \u201coutcomes/impacts\u201d of the social innovation project; the feedback loops interpreted as \u201clearning processes\u201d. Information on these complex and multifaceted aspects can be collected at the local level by means of semi-structured and structured interviews and participatory-based events (focus groups). Both quantitative and qualitative approaches and instruments are hence combined, and this is applicable for data collection as well as for the analysis of results and reporting of findings. Accordingly, the data can then be analysed and interpreted through indicators and other advanced instruments like the Social Network Analysis. Our proposed SIMRA evaluation method is currently being tested in 10 different case studies in various EU and extra-EU Mediterranean countries. Preliminary results in terms of calculated indicators for social innovation elements are expected by January 2019. Given the current stage of the study within SIMRA, this contribution intends to stimulate the scientific discourse and the debate between the world of science and that of the stakeholders. It does this by providing ideas and opportunity for discussion, alongside possible practical solutions for an evaluation approach and a specific evaluation framework for the capturing of the multifaceted aspects of social innovation. The latter two will be explained by directly applying them to a few/three selected Italian examples that most probably will be chosen among \u201cCooperativa Cadore\u201d, with its SIMBIorti project (Belluno); the national network \u201cMontagnaterapia\u201d, with its activities with disabled people; \u201cCooperativa di Comunit\ue0 Briganti del Cerreto\u201d (Reggio Emilia), with its multiple services to slow and rural tourism; \u201cRural Hub\u201d (Frosinone), with its activity of migrants\u2019 inclusion. Despite the various methodological challenges and the high diversification and complexity of the topics to be evaluated (social innovation\u2019s process, project and impacts), we believe that our scheme paves the way for building an innovative set of methods that considers \u201csocial factors\u201d important role in EU\u2019s future \u2018Rural Development Programs\u2019 and \u2018Agricultural research and Innovation Agenda\u2019

SIparte: soft coaching and a rural hackathon to support socio-entrepreneurial innovative businesses in rural areas

This paper presents the results of the Siparte Innovation Action implemented in Valbelluna to tackle the challenges of local youth unemployment and growing outmigration rates. The innovation action has created new local networks, supported sustainable business ideas related to social innovation among local young people, and financially supported the initial start-up phase of one selected initiative

Promoting International Youth Engagement and Partnership Building at the IUCN World Conservation Congress : final report

The learning experiences and achievements of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) congress participants from Bangladesh, Canada, Costa Rica, Mexico, and the United States move towards developing strategic plans for broadening the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic, and Social Policy (CEESP) Youth Network membership. It also contributes to the design and implementation of the Task Force on Intergenerational Partnership for Sustainability initiatives. This report compiles reflections from the partnership member network and considers the impact of the 5th IUCN World Conservation Congress (2012)

Social Innovation in the Mediterranean and how it can help to manage Mediterranean forests

This presentation specifies how social innovation initiatives can be promoted in Mediterranean forests. Furthermore, it presents the evaluation methodology proposed for analyzing these initiatives. Preliminary results are also identified and some concluding remarks proposed

SIparte: Orientamento, Formazione e un Hackathon Rurale e supporto di idee Imprenditoriali Innovative in Aree Montane

La Valbelluna, in Provincia di Belluno (Veneto), \ue8 un\u2019area prevalentemente montana caratterizzata da un importante patrimonio naturale e culturale, ospitante siti Unesco e parchi nazionali. L\u2019area, bench\ue9 abitata da una societ\ue0 civile altamente impegnata, negli ultimi decenni ha visto un calo delle opportunit\ue0 lavorative per i giovani accompagnato da scarse possibilit\ue0 di formazione specifica nei settori dell\u2019agricoltura, del turismo, degli aspetti culturali e dell\u2019inclusione sociale ed un progressivo spopolamento (GAL Prealpi e Dolomiti, Programma di Sviluppo Locale, 2016). Con la crisi del 2008, il divario nei livelli di disoccupazione tra giovani ed altre fasce d\u2019et\ue0 \ue8 andato ampliandosi. In questo contesto, si inserisce un percorso di innovazione sociale volto a incrementare le opportunit\ue0 di giovani imprenditori, sostenendo indirettamente la resilienza della popolazione locale e uno sviluppo territoriale sostenibile, attento alle dinamiche ambientali, culturali e socio-economiche. Attraverso il progetto EU Horizon 2020 \u201cSocial Innovation in Marginalised Rural Areas\u201d (SIMRA), il cui obiettivo si esplica nello studio di azioni di innovazione sociale in aree rurali marginalizzate dei paesi europei e del Mediterraneo, si \ue8 attuata un\u2019azione innovativa nella collaborazione tra l\u2019Universit\ue0 di Padova, lo spin-off Etifor ed il Gruppo di Azione Locale (GAL) Prealpi e Dolomiti. L\u2019azione \ue8 stata sviluppata in risposta ad esigenze percepite sul territorio, per contrastare lo spopolamento giovanile ed il crescente impoverimento del tessuto culturale, economico e sociale. Si \ue8 puntato a stimolare la creazione di nuovi network e a supportare lo sviluppo di idee imprenditoriali giovanili legate all\u2019innovazione sociale, attraverso un percorso formativo ad-hoc, basato su tecniche di approccio partecipativo. In una prima serie di incontri hanno partecipato 30 giovani del territorio con varie idee che spaziavano dal settore culturale-ricreativo, a quello agricolo e forestale fino allo sviluppo rurale. Con un hackathon rurale di 36 ore che ha visto 6 gruppi (per un totale di 24 giovani imprenditori) cimentarsi nell\u2019affinare e presentare la loro idea imprenditoriale con l\u2019aiuto di professionisti ricercatori provenienti da vari ambienti, si \ue8 chiusa la prima fase. L\u2019idea vincente \ue8 stata premiata supportandone la fase di start-up. Il team vincente ha infatti iniziato ad approfondire la propria idea in una serie di incontri faccia a faccia. Attualmente si stanno raccogliendo i risultati iniziali, e la conferenza sar\ue0 l\u2019occasione per una prima presentazione pubblica

What Methods to Evaluate Social Innovation in Mountain Areas? A Reflection on Specific Critical Issues.

The document is a PDF version of a Power Point Presentation illustrated at the Conference "Mountain regions, territories of innovation" LabEx ITEM, Cité des Territoires, University of Grenoble-Alpes, Grenoble, 11-13 January 2017. It includes a description of the H2020 funded project SIMRA (Grant Agreement n. 677622), an overview of different methods existing in literature for evaluating innovations and a description of the preliminary structure proposed to develop an innovative method for evaluating social innovation in remote areas such as mountain areas. Critical methodological issues are highlighted and discussed

Quelles sont les méthodes pour évaluer l'innovation sociale dans les zones de montagne? Une réflexion sur des questions essentielles

International audienceIn the Europe 2020 Strategy, Social Innovation (SI) tries to respond to unmet or unresolved social demands. SI includes new institutional and governance arrangements, new relationships between actors and new fields of activity. Despite increasing recognition of its novel features when compared to classical Schumpeterian innovations, several challenges remain with actual implementation and evaluation of SI. This is due to the lack of recognized mechanisms for assessing performance and standard units of analysis for its impact evaluation. This qualitative paper is based on initial analysis carried out within the EU funded H2020 project Social Innovation in Marginalised Rural Areas. Starting from critical challenges in European marginalised mountain areas, we explore whether and how existing methods, approaches and tools can be used or adapted to propose a new evaluation framework that measures SI and its impacts more accurately and comprehensively. Ad hoc criteria and indicators that capture the specificities of SI and its impacts may thus contribute to formulate more relevant and effective mountain development policies intended to address the specific social demands of these areas

Social innovation: a preliminary exploration of a contested concept

This paper explores the contested concept of social innovation by using the ideas of discourse and framing as a lens to explore the contested definitions of social innovation. A selection of definitions is then deconstructed in relation to these discourses and framings. It is argued that the political pressures which create interest in social innovation have resulted in a confused and contested series of definitions, which remain largely unconnected to wider debates and theories about innovation. Instead, many authors contrive an almost alchemic status for social innovation when the reality of social innovation in practice may be rather more prosaic

Social Agriculture in Selected EU Countries: A Market Outlook

Social agriculture is a fast-growing sector in Europe. There is a great diversity in the social agriculture landscape across Europe, depending on the national contexts. The settings in which social agriculture takes place, namely social farms, are innovative because they combine health care and social services with agricultural production. Different participant groups find their place on these social farms. Social agriculture can be beneficial for participants, providers, the environment and the wider society. In this paper, we give an overview of the social agriculture market situation in a selected number of European countries, namely the Netherlands, Flanders (Belgium), Italy, Austria and Ireland. The country focus is largely dictated by the composition of, and the resources available to the project team undertaking this study. To explain how social agriculture is organised in the different European countries reviewed, three main frameworks are used: a multifunctional agriculture, public health and a social inclusion framework. In each of the countries under review, specific regulations, funding mechanisms, cultural values and support organisations provide different contexts for the evolution of social agriculture. A Market Outlook for social agriculture in these selected countries is undertaken which addresses the demand for and supply of such services, the profile of providers and beneficiaries, the key issues relating to funding, policy, certification/quality standards and future trends impacting on the sector. To make the European social agricultural sector more sustainable, it is important to broaden the activities and target groups, raise awareness, increase visibility via communication and tailor and secure funding for the future