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Purpose: How to evaluate the social impact of social innovation has emerged as an important question posed by academics, organizations, and policymakers in recent years. One reason for this is the increasing concern with the social impact of different types of organizations and social practices, particularly in response to a recognition of the urgency of developing more inclusive economies and societies. To find an answer to this question, this research seeks to investigate the state-of-the-art in terms of social innovation impact measurement, drawing on both scientific literature and practitioner literature. Originality/value: This research discusses the challenges posed by measuring the impact of social innovation initiatives and how these measurements may change the assessment process. The analysis finds that methodologies for measuring social innovation have mainly been undertaken in Europe, where these initiatives are largely addressed. Design/methodology/approach: This paper adopted a qualitative research approach based on the scoping review method. This method is widely used to identify emergent topics in scientific literature, aiming to identify implications for research and decision-making. The research was developed based on different steps to obtain information about the social impact measurement indicators and their overall contribution to the advancement of social innovation. Findings: The results also confirmed the lack of social innovation frameworks, methodologies, and tools capable of measuring the social impact of social innovations. Furthermore, a set of barriers in this field was identified, which can be used to channel better upcoming academic research on developing social impact indicators for social innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intentional sustainable communities (ISCs) are commonly described as micro-based community initiatives that seek to develop sustainable lifestyles with low environmental impact. More recently, they have been analyzed as laboratories for the emergence of innovation, namely social innovation, and as actors that can contribute to sustainable transitions. This reinforces their role as pressure agents and as microscale communities of practice. Theoretically, it is argued that this scalability of innovation dynamics requires a multi-level and multi-actor perspective, mechanisms of reciprocity and that actors are not isolated and atomized. These mechanisms, such as networks, are crucial for the dissemination of sustainability practices and for increasing their potential impact. This article argues that these communities can also be important micro agents in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to mainstream the importance of scaling their innovation practices. To this end, the study uses quantitative data from a survey applied to the ISCs in Europe. The data corroborates the communities' contribution to the SDGs, namely to SDG12, SDG13 and SDG16 and presents the collaboration network structure established within these communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to advance the state of knowledge related to innovation and philanthropy, by exploring the emerging field of 'participatory grantmaking' (PGM) through the lens of innovation literature. While there are increasing amounts of European and global grantmakers utilizing more participatory methodologies in their grantmaking as a means to move power and increase the collective ability to create social good, there is yet to be any literature specifically exploring the links between these two fields. This conceptual paper, therefore, uses a broad reading of innovation literature to argue that it is most fruitful to consider PGM as innovation within four modalities: as a form of social innovation, process innovation, both radical and incremental innovation, and user-driven innovation. The paper ultimately finds that user-driven innovation (and in particular co-creation / co-production as a strategy to user-driven innovation) may provide the best examples of theory and practical relevance for those utilizing PGM as a means to democratize philanthropy in Europe and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the framework of defining a new energy paradigm to address climate change and other global challenges, the energy community model is gaining interest in several countries, especially in Europe. This article analyses the literature and experiences of organisational forms that fall under the definition of energy communities in a broad sense, in relation to their ability to bring improvements to the social, environmental and economic dimensions, and to ensure durability and replicability. The main elements that constitute a complete, albeit simplified, model of energy community are identified and analysed. The legislative and regulatory frameworks, technologies and social innovation frameworks, identified here as enabling elements, are discussed, as well as the elements of the energy community business models and the impacts generated at the environmental and energy, economic and social levels. The transformation potential of energy communities is confirmed as more than promising. However, in order to develop as a sustainable and replicable model capable of achieving social and environmental goals, as well as economic stability, further significant research and experimentation, following a cross-sectoral and multidisciplinary approach and strong political leadership, are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the period of postmodern changes, trends for global cooperation and the development of the contemporary standards of university education are focused on the convergence of state higher education layouts in Europe to design an Area for Higher Education in Europe (EHEA), which will mainly strengthen worldwide competitiveness. The principles of university standards system modernization in the postmodern era are not the same but similar in both European and global educational environments. In general, they may be described as the triple-phased process of standardized assessment, combining a triangle of education, research, and innovation. Global cooperation trends and the adoption of common standards in European and world education enable university students and staff at different levels to be mobile without legal or other restrictions within the international community. The university has always been and remains a powerful structure that has survived many historical epochs. Thus, postmodern transformation processes in the university education sector have led to the need to review and reorganize the whole system of standardized assessment of a threefold set of knowledge, based on exploration and alteration, correlated with the conventional and contemporary university function, connected with producing new knowledge, that is not restricted to the national frameworks, but is worldwide, directed on the global cooperation, and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volley fire with gunpowder weapons is often seen by modern scholars as one of the important innovations which allowed Europe to politically dominate other cultures and societies. Many historiographical theories, of the kind Lyotard termed metarécits, “metanarratives,” have attempted to explain this phenomenon. Recently, compelling evidence has emerged that other civilizations also practiced the technique, most notably China. This article brings together existing and new evidence that volley fire with firearms was developed and practiced in China long before it appeared in Europe and challenges several of the grand narratives of European exceptionalism. This new evidence shows that the volley fire technique arose in China primarily as a reaction to domestic and foreign (semi-)nomadic cavalry threats, belying geographically deterministic accounts, which suggest that sophisticated infantry tactics with firearms would not arise in states bordering the steppe. This article will also challenge the claim that volley fire in Europe benefitted from its emergence in a competitive system of states undergoing a traditionchallenging Renaissance. I call for a reconsideration of the innovative potential of Eurasian land empires bordering the steppe, and stress the importance of studying political contingencies and cultures of innovation in shaping world history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The so-called 'refugee crisis' marked a crucial juncture in migration governance across Europe. Policy-makers and local communities face the challenge of receiving and integrating migrants (often in extremely vulnerable conditions) in a context of poor governance arrangements and rising skepticism, or even hostility. In the light of such a complex scenario, this special issue explores social innovation as a promising approach to refugee integration. Socially innovative practices are indeed based on the active engagement of policy-makers and assorted stakeholders—including target groups through co-creation. In the realm of asylum policies, social innovation can thus facilitate the meeting of refugees' needs as well as the benevolence of receiving communities, ultimately strengthening social cohesion in regions of settlement. Families hosting migrants at home, community-based cooperatives, and self-managed social spaces are all instances of socially innovative practices that are often initiated by non-state actors but that might be upscaled and transformed into fully fledged public policies—especially by policy-makers at the local and regional levels. The special issue will focus on labor, housing, and social integration of refugees (especially in the stages after their first reception) in the context of Central European cities and regions. The purpose is to develop conceptual tools for evaluating and designing socially innovative practices that might ultimately improve the social innovation capacity of local and regional governments. As the 'social innovation' concept risks to be ambiguous, the special issue will also allow researchers to develop a set of empirically grounded indicators for measuring social innovation capacity—especially based on the analysis of best practices that can be upscaled and replicated through mutual learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The changes and challenges that are tackling the forest sector in recent decades have prompted governments and foresters to work hard to find innovative solutions. Research in the forestry domain has focused on product and process innovation, and more recently on business systems and social innovation. In addition, organizational innovation is recognized and documented. However, while consistent conceptualization work has been conducted for business models and social innovation, the organizational domain in forestry seems less clear, characterized by multiple actors and often overlapping in literature, while a clear framework to describe it is missing. This work proposes a conceptualization of the "organizational model", a concept embracing different approaches to build an analytical framework used to describe and characterize organizations in the forestry sector. The framework is drafted referring to existing theories, then tested (and further developed) through a semi-systematic literature review on organizations operating in forest management in Europe that are identified, categorized, and characterized. This exercise confirms that forest management organizations can be described with several diverse arrangements and can be complex entities: a holistic and comprehensive approach is more likely to be used by policy initiatives addressing improvement of forest management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statistical accounting of the impacts of citizen-led energy initiatives is absent, despite their impact on increased energy self-sufficiency and ramping up of renewable energies, local sustainable development, greater citizen engagement, diversification of activities, social innovation, and acceptance of transition measures. This paper quantifies the aggregate contributions of collective action in pursuit of the sustainable energy transition in Europe. We estimate the number of initiatives (10,540), projects (22,830), people involved (2,010,600), installed renewable capacities (7.2–9.9 GW), and investments made (6.2–11.3 billion EUR) for 30 European countries. Our aggregate estimates do not suggest that collective action will replace commercial enterprises and governmental action in the short or medium term without fundamental alterations to policy and market structures. However, we find strong evidence for the historical, emerging, and actual importance of citizen-led collective action to the European energy transition. Collective action in the energy transition is experimenting successfully with new business models in the energy sector. Continued decentralization of energy systems and more stringent decarbonization policies will increase the importance of these actors in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrating peatland restoration measures with climate policy is critical for meeting climate targets, but the current policies often fall short of utilizing the large potential that exists. Despite growing private sector interest, few regional voluntary carbon markets for peatlands have emerged worldwide. In this study, we explore three pioneering examples from Europe. From the perspective of social innovation, we aim to provide clarity on how these innovations emerged and developed, which actors drove the innovation process by assuming which roles, and which factors fostered or hindered the development. We do so by mapping the innovation process using Process Net-Map. The results show that all three cases have followed remarkably similar patterns in their innovation processes. Four phases, i.e. preparation, definition, refinement, and up-scaling were identified, as were actors' roles as innovators, promoters, intermediaries, implementers, and knowledge providers. However, the case studies are very different with regard to which actor constellation drove the innovation process: MoorFutures is driven by public and scientific actors, Valuta vor Veen is promoted by civil society actors in consultation with practitioners, and Hiilipörssi shifted from civil society to private actors. The governance modes, that is, actor constellation and their goals, have led to differences in concept, robustness of methodology, mitigation measure, and possibly potential for up-scaling. Our study indicates that the timing of interventions when actors with certain roles stepped in can accelerate the innovation process. Important political, economic, technical, and social factors influencing the innovation process, especially knowledge and trust accumulated between some key actors, are outlined. Private funding for regional voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) can tap the climate mitigation potential from peatlands, which is not currently adequately addressed by governments. Actor constellation drove the innovation process, leading to different concepts, methodologies, and mitigation measures. The timing of interventions by actors, notably providing seed funding, network, expertise and visibility, was critical for success. Building trust for regional VCMs requires not only a robust methodology to calculate emission reductions but also partnership and endorsement. The future development of climate policy on peatlands could be a decisive factor in regional VCMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore how macro and micro networks influence the diffusion of technological innovation and cultural/social behavior. Across the historical regimes in China and Europe, dynastic lordship's macro networks afforded different advantages in technological innovation. A network particular to Europe, the Roman Church, extended deep into local parishes with ethical norms prescribing fairness to strangers, and these cultural foundations helped guilds, trade associations, merchant courts, and universities operate cooperatively far beyond kinship. In contrast, Chinese emperors relied on ancient Confucian moral codes and system-spanning Confucian-educated officialdom; but fiscal limitations compelled officials to defer to local lineage orders, resulting in an enduring cultural pattern of guanxi and a polity whose institutional problem-solving capacity falter beyond the local level. Yet the civil service system has enabled China to outperform similar lineage-dependent regimes. Probing network topologies, we find that system-spanning networks can facilitate technological diffusion, but local networks influence cultural and behavioral change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the potential role of non-wood forest products (NWFPs) which are so far largely neglected within forest-related bioeconomy research and policy. From an innovation system perspective, we look at the barriers for NWFPs development and propose how they can be supported. We analyse 20 innovation cases in Europe, based on the analysis of documents and semi-structured interviews with experts involved in the cases. Results show that there is no "one" innovation system supporting NWFPs, but support is given rather erratically through certain programmes from various sectoral or regional innovation systems (forestry, agriculture, nature conservation or rural or regional development). There is a pronounced neglection of the institutional system towards NWFPs, resulting in a lack of statistics, research, education and training programmes and focused support structures. However, our results show rich potential of NWFPs in the forest bioeconomy for private forest owners and producers. These activities can range from a collection of NWFPs for subsistence to collectively organized production relevant to rural areas. Most of these are product innovations, some are service or social innovations, while some combine different innovation types. From some successful examples we derive suggestions for how to improve innovation support structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, many rural regions of Central Europe have witnessed a massive inflow of non-EU nationals, turning them into new migration destinations (NDMs). The majority of these regions were not prepared for this change and international migration became a hot-button topic. However, as the negative consequences of demographic change are getting more prominent in rural Central Europe, these regions should search for new ways to stimulate the integration of newly-arrived migrants. This can be done with the help of “social innovations.” This paper provides a literature overview on the aforementioned topics, as well as an analysis of the results of the Arrival Regions Project (Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE) that tested nine different social innovation approaches to support the integration of non-EU nationals in rural Central Europe. The results of the project confirmed that social innovation approaches are an effective and easy-toimplement way to support integration of non-EU nationals living in rural Central Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unique contribution of this paper is the assessment of the interrelation between Industry 4.0. and social innovation, which is lacking in the academic literature so far. The data for the analysis is a result from an own survey developed and conducted under project "Possibilities and barriers for Industry 4.0 implementation in SMEs in V4 countries and Serbia", funded by the Visegrad Fund. By performing factor analysis five components forming social innovation based on previous studies (Klerkx et al.;2019b) are proved to have positive influence on the digital transition of small and medium sized companies in Central and Eastern Europe The factors are named as following: 1) Adoption of digital technologies; 2) Effects of digitalization on company's identity; 3) Ethics in digitising production systems and value chains; 4) Digitalization and innovation systems and 5) Economics and management of digitalized production. They could serve as a base for creating a business model, which could facilitate Industry 4.0. implementation in manufacturing companies in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Española de Sociología is the property of Federacion Espanola de Sociologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Española de Sociología is the property of Federacion Espanola de Sociologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

It is generally well-accepted in innovation research that consumer/user adoption of an invention is key to its diffusion. Despite general awareness about the importance of the adopter perspective in innovation diffusion, the majority of the literature on social innovation, hardly addresses the adoption-side of innovation diffusion. Social innovation potential therefore often remains under-utilized. In this paper the result of a review of 468 (predominantly English language) publications on social innovation is provided (based on Web of Science), searching for the adopter perspective in social innovation research. The findings show that, although some hints at the role of adopters, and their environment, can be found in the literature, attention for the willingness and capacities of potential adopters is meager in peer-reviewed publications. Propelled by high policy expectations, at the national as well as European level, scientific interest in social innovation has been booming over the last decade. Without a proper understanding of social innovation diffusion dynamics and adopter willingness and their interactions with existing institutions, expectations may not be fulfilled and specific social innovation policies that have been emerging across Europe may not be able to achieve intended policy goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the idea of social innovation as both a conceptual and practical means of delivering positive social, economic and environmental outcomes in marginal rural areas. Definitions are critically appraised, and the dual contemporary origins of the term social innovation (in management sciences and critical social science) are explored. There has been much conceptual confusion, in particular about the extent to which civil society agency is central or desirable in social innovation. Social innovation can be seen to be closely connected to a range of theories that inform both innovation and rural development, but it lacks a singular theoretical "home". Social innovation can also have a dark side, which merits scrutiny. Three case studies illustrate social innovation processes and outcomes in different parts of Europe. Where committed actors, local enabling agency and overarching policies align, the outcomes of social innovations can be considerable. If rarely transformational, social innovation has shown itself capable of delivering positive socioeconomic and environmental outcomes in more bounded spatial settings. It seems questionable whether social innovation will survive as an organising and capacity-building concept alongside more established principles, such as community-led local development, which, although not exactly social innovation, is very similar and already firmly embedded in policy guidance or whether it will be replaced by new equally fuzzy ideas, such as the smart village approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The regional context is important for the transfer of sustainability innovations to other locations. • Technological and social innovations have different transfer mechanisms. • In their transfer, innovations are translated rather than replicated (i.e. transferred unaltered). • The transfer is enabled by cultural factors, networks and regional actors. Festivals play a remarkable role. Sustainability challenges require experimenting with various types of sustainability innovations. Local and regional context conditions influence their diffusion. Our research question is: what are pathways for the transfer of sustainability innovations to other locations, and how do local and regional conditions enable this transfer? We use the notion of 'harbours' to conceptualise the combination of these conditions. In a comparative case study in four city-regions, analysing 48 experiments, we find that technological innovations travel easier around the globe compared to social innovations. For social innovations, the transferred knowledge has a more tacit character and the innovations are strongly embedded in the local cultural and institutional context. Signifiers may enable their translocal diffusion. Moreover, the results suggest that innovations are 'translated' rather than replicated. We find some important local and regional context conditions enabling transfer: cultural conditions, vibrant environments (such as festivals), networks and the presence of enabling regional actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing number of digitally-enabled social innovation initiatives have recently attracted social scholars' interest; and required an attentive consideration the complex entanglements between innovation, social agency and power. This paper contributes to the debate on this juvenile research field by analysing the different conceptualisations, cultural framing, and socio-political entanglements of digitally-enabled social innovation. It adopts a Foucauldian perspective in order to analyse the diverse discourses on socially transformative digital initiatives that work as 'social technologies' and support distinctive power/knowledge nexuses within diverse coalitions of actors. To this end, the paper applies a combination of bibliographic and text-mining methodologies to a large number of academic publications (191 scientific papers) and grey literature (1948 EU-project reports). Retrieved data are elaborated to map the emerging discursive field and identify a genealogy of associated concepts, the distribution of co-incidences and linkages with other concepts, and their ideological layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advent of smart cities (SCs), governance has been placed at the core of the debate on how to create public value and achieve a high quality of life in urban environments. In particular, given that public value is rooted in democratic theory and new technologies that promote networking spaces have emerged, citizen participation represents one of the principal instruments to make government open and close to the citizenry needs. Participation in urban governance has undergone a great development: from the first postmodernist ideals of countering expert dominance to today's focus on learning and social innovation, where citizen participation is conceptualized as co-creation and co-production. Despite this development, there is a lack of research to know how this new governance context is taking place in the SC arena. Addressing this situation, in this article, we present an exhaustive survey of the research literature and a deep study of the experience in participative initiatives followed by SCs in Europe. Through an analysis of 149 SC initiatives from 76 European cities, we provide interesting insights about how participatory models have been introduced in the different areas and dimensions of the cities, how citizen engagement is promoted in SC initiatives, and whether the so-called creative SCs are those with a higher number of projects governed in a participatory way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the range of expansion/development/growth pathways (or scaling) that might occur with social innovations, with reference to social innovation in rural areas. It explores the lack of a clear conceptualization of both social innovation as a phenomenon and the possible growth and expansion pathways that might arise. Based on a survey of the diverse literature on the expansion/development/growth pathways of social innovations, and illustrated primarily by European examples, the paper develops a typology built around an attempted synthesis of the extant typologies found in published literature. Different theories of rural development are employed to help explain the divergent development pathways that might be anticipated in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities and fringes are often characterised by neglected heritages that affect the perceived quality of life in the territories, especially when it comes to industrial sites. Some studies suggest that their regeneration with social innovation fosters a greater feeling of belonging to the place, creates new socio-cultural activities and new jobs, and increases ground rent. Does this create territorial innovation? What are the impacts of S.I. and T.I. generated by regeneration? This paper aims to assess the average social and territorial innovation impacts of industrial heritage regeneration in cities and fringes and to test the hypothesis of a correlation between them. A mixed methods approach has been adopted with semi-structured telephonic interviews, data analysis, and comparison. 100 examples of industrial heritage regeneration in Europe, equally located in cities and fringes, were analysed. This research offers a novel theoretical contribution to the international literature, corroborating that social innovation plays a vital role in the territorial innovation of cities and fringes. The results show that the greater the social innovation, the higher the level of territorial innovation. Furthermore, this study confirms that innovation depends on location, new uses and regeneration model. These results contribute to the body of knowledge and open new research opportunities in theories and practice for territorial innovation and industrial heritage urban regeneration with social innovation. [Display omitted] • Industrial heritage regeneration with social innovation is a driver for territorial innovation. • Three models of industrial heritage regeneration are identified. • Social innovation and territorial innovation are correlated. • The average impact of social and territorial innovation is higher in ecosystemic models. • The average impact of social and territorial innovation is slightly higher in cities than in fringes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social innovation concept became recently part of the European policy agenda and the Innovation Union Flagship Initiative resulted in the launch of a series of research projects and in the development of new policy instruments. Old Europe does not lead the world in digital innovations. They emphasize the need for international networking, and, at the same time, they underline both the persistence of differences among and within member states in the reception of EU policy initiatives. [Extracted from the article]

Social Economy encompasses a wide array of private organizations that can be situated along a continuum that ranges from civil society to the business sector, e.g., associations, foundations, cooperatives, social enterprises, social business initiatives. The social sphere populated by SE/TS organizations operates in complex and multi‐layer environments and is particularly sensitive to institutional configuration. This paper deals with the institutional policy and attitude of the EU Commission towards SE/TS organizations in the field of welfare policy. We start with an illustration of the key features of the Social Investment policy framework, that stresses the adoption of an 'active policy' orientation and the overriding of more traditional 'compensatory policies'. Secondly, we analyze the regulatory eco‐system of the EU towards Social Economy in the last three decades. Thirdly, we present the main results of an European research project aimed at analyzing the 'level of recognition' and 'institutionalization' of the SE sector in ten European Countries. Then, we provide some data about the consistency of the Social Economy in EU, based on several research reports promoted by European Institutions (EESC). Finally, the main results of the analysis are summarized in order to assess the current conjuncture of the Social Economy sector in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on social innovation has gained momentum over the last decade, spurred notably by the growing interest in social issues related to policy making, public management and entrepreneurship in response to the wicked problems societies in Europe and worldwide face. Its popularity among academics and policy makers also marks a turning point in how innovations are thought of and what their role in economic development is. However, for social innovations to unfold their full potential for the beneficiaries and societies at large a better understanding of underlying mechanisms, processes and impacts is necessary. Focusing on 'the economics of social innovation', this special issue addresses a widely neglected topic in regional development. The contributions cover distinct but complementary and related aspects concerning the existing gap between the hitherto unexploited potential of social innovation in relation to the complex and interrelated socio-economic challenges regions across Europe and globally face. This editorial provides a brief introduction in the Special Issue's general theme followed by an overview of the lines of argumentation and main results of the contributions. It concludes with an outlook on future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the paper is to understand the various determinants of social innovation incidence at the macroeconomic level across countries in Europe. Using a multivariate regression framework, the paper analyses the role of various characteristics from the ecosystem in which social innovations occur. In particular, the paper quantifies the relative importance of several factors, such as educational attainment, ease of doing business index, corruption index, risk preferences, cultural and social norms, to name a few. Methodologically, the paper takes into account the evolution of macroeconomic circumstances, such as the economic crisis of 2008 or general time trend, by collecting a panel data of various indicators from different data sources across countries and over time. As part of robustness checks, the paper uses three different measures of social innovation and includes country fixed effects to account for heterogeneities across countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the multi-dimensional framework of Damanpour and Schneider [2006. "Phases of the Adoption of Innovation in Organizations: Effects of Environment, Organization and Top Managers 1." British Journal of Management 17 (3): 215–236], the purpose of this study is to identify the managerial, organizational and environmental determinants of social innovation, depicted in terms of the amount of special initiatives initiated for specific target groups. while considering the initiative's type (i.e. administrative versus technical). A lognormal double hurdle model, on a sample of approximately 5000 voluntary sports clubs (VSCs) from 9 different European countries, indicates significant effects for each level. In particular, positive managerial attitudes and public support through both financial and infrastructural resources are important predictors for a VSC to adopt special initiatives towards a target group. Furthermore, differences between determinants of administrative and technical initiatives are found. These results call for measures in terms of resource support from sports policy-makers at European, national and regional levels, along with the need for VSCs to meet the demands from neglected target groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arts and cultural activities have become an increasingly important aspect of urban and regional development. Can such projects be seen as socially innovative? Socially innovative projects are here understood as those that create new ways of looking at problems, new organisational means for dealing with problems and solutions that go beyond market efficiency. This paper considers arts-based redevelopment projects at regional, municipal and neighbourhood scales. Its focus is on US cities with some examples drawn from Europe. Initiatives to build regional creative economies and creative clusters, and to revitalise buildings and neighbourhoods through cultural activities can be seen as socially innovative, although they can also catalyse market processes that can have deleterious impacts on vulnerable communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on creating space for social innovation in Europe for reductive interpretations of economic and social development and mentions the impact on human capabilities; and innovations in fertilizer and pesticide use can yield water quality problems due to high pollution.

This paper explores the drivers behind a recent “urban turn” of planned knowledge locations in Europe. While acknowledging a general tendency towards more urbanity, we argue that a dense and diverse urban environment is not equally relevant for all types of knowledge-based activities because of nuanced workers’ preferences and innovation modes. Based on a theory “considering different types of knowledge bases”, we suggest that activities that more intensively rely on symbolic knowledge (e.g., media, design) tend to have a stronger preference for urban settings, while this is less the case for activities based on analytical and synthetic knowledge (e.g., biotechnology and advanced engineering). We illustrate our thesis by three case studies: Kista Science Park in Stockholm, The Digital Hub in Dublin, and Biocant in Coimbra. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Social innovation is attracting increasing attention in research and policy, heightened by continuing austerity across Europe. Therefore, this paper examines earlier research into community-led local development (CLLD) initiatives in rural areas of Europe to develop our understanding of the meaning and scope of rural social innovation. We draw on a Schumpeterian view where innovations emerge from new combinations of resources that bring about positive changes and create value in society. A Schumpeterian social innovation framework is derived as the basis for re-analysing data from previous evaluations of LEADER policy in five different national contexts. This elicits a clearer understanding of social innovation in a rural development context, identifying different processes and outcomes that create social value. As the CLLD agenda and the demand for innovation in Europe gather pace, our aspirations are to inform future research and other initiatives on how to integrate social innovation into the design and evaluation of new rural development policies and programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation strategies for smart specialization have become the new framework for organizing innovation support in European regions and states. This article examines how policy-makers conceive monitoring in the context of the current European territorial and innovation policy. In this setting, monitoring activities have to move beyond an audit-oriented logic in order to integrate a range of strategic functions such as producing the information needed to manage evidence-based policy decisions effectively and keep stakeholders informed and engaged in the policy cycle. To analyse this transition, we first conceptualize the logic of intervention of smart specialization. In a second step, we present the findings from a survey of policy-makers on their perceptions of this intervention logic and monitoring. We find that strategy monitoring is an exercise that must go beyond a narrow audit focus. Regional policy-makers involve stakeholders to interpret monitoring results for strategy revision and they adopt a priority-specific intervention logic, albeit with problems of implementing this logic in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transformation of urban policy, resulting from 'creative industries' policy developments, is explored in this article, with respect to the Baltic capitals. Policy initiatives in the creative industries in Central and Eastern European cities have predominantly developed through policy transfers from Western Europe, with its long-term market economy experience. How adaptable are such policies for post-socialist cities? Using the concept of social innovation, this article describes mechanisms that facilitate policy acceptance and examines whether and how the development of creative industries has resulted in urban policy renewal in the Baltic capitals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the evolution of social policy concerns, debates and reforms in the United States, especially starting with the Gilded Age and through the Progressive Era. It capitalizes on policy analysis literature in order to strengthen the argument of exploring context in order to understand social policy. It also delves into the social climate that gave birth to the Progressives and shaped their perceptions with regard to social change. Finally, it attempts to offer a new perspective on the distinctive social welfare track undertaken by the Americans, when compared to the European traditional model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Quality of Life (1018-0389) / Calitatea Vieţii is the property of Romanian Academy Publishing House / Editura Academiei Romane and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Italy is one of the main receiving countries of migrant care workers in Europe. Its migrant-in-the-family model has developed since the 1990s, and, today, home-based eldercare is unimaginable without the work of the almost one million care workers employed in private households, of whom over 75% are migrants. Despite forming one of the most important pillars of eldercare provision in the country, the employment of migrant care workers is not addressed in national policy. However, regional policymaking is far from inactive in the face of growing gaps in care as regions and municipalities play a crucial role in regulating, organising, and providing eldercare. With a focus on comprehensive solutions, cross-sector collaborations, and interactive learning processes, social innovation becomes an important element in reforming eldercare in the context of institutional inertia, fragmentation, and permanent austerity. In what ways are regions using social innovation to respond to challenges in eldercare provision and integrate migrant care workers? This study is based on interviews with experts from the region of Tuscany, which is running the project Pronto Badante (emergency care worker). The results suggest several advantages of local interventions breaking with the institutional silo mentality, as well as ongoing challenges regarding the impact and sustainability of these interventions.

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Industrial policy has been a cornerstone of economic policy in Europe after the world war and the transformation of basic industries like coal and steel were key issues at the beginning of European integration. In the 1970s and 1990s industrial policy shifted toward support of high-tech industries. In the seventies the importance of a more systemic view came up, policy had to address the specific weaknesses of the innovation system. The Lisbon agenda finally combines competitiveness with social and environmental goals. Industry plays an important role in generating welfare and industrial policy is in different forms and sorts back, high on the agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article exploits the potential and limits of participation as a means to overcome authoritarian structures. The main argument is that social innovation at the grassroots level can only become radical if it helps overcome authoritarianism which is a general characteristic of capitalist societies and has a specific form in Austria and Vienna. The two projects chosen for in-depth analysis are initiatives of bottom-up participation: Local Agenda 21 and Local Area Management. Both are deeply interwoven with current processes of transformation in Europe, oscillating between path dependency -- surrendering to one more episode of controlled modernization -- and radical change -- the diffusion of a political culture of democracy and participation. The initiatives analysed focus on a common political domain: broadening public participation by offering better access to the local state and the public sphere. Both projects put in train broad discussions of how to organize social change and mobilization. They are Janus--faced as there were struggles between democratic tendencies, which seek to acknowledge a wide range of stakeholders in policy making, and techno-corporate tendencies. Both projects are 'schools of participation', as they increased know-bow and social competence and raised consciousness. But only by questioning liberal governance and the straitjacket of its naturalization of the market society can citizens regain control of urban development and jointly shape the destiny of the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introductory article does three things. First, it compares neo-liberal and social innovation discourses about urban socio-economic change, including associated policies and key agencies. Second, it seeks to improve the analytical framework of urban development by combining 'spatialized' Regulation Theory with elements from Cultural Political Economy and from Urban Regime Theory. Third, with the help of case-studies, the article illustrates how social innovation is a potentially powerful concept, capable of anchoring urban change movements more firmly into the local social and political fabric. The case-studies, some of which are included in this special issue, analyse examples of social innovation in a number of European urban contexts, within the framework of the FP5 SINGOCOM research project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities generate about 85% of the EU's GDP. As such, they are key players in shaping and providing technological and social innovations but also environmental impact. Thus, they must urgently engage in unprecedented systemic transformational and bold transitions towards sustainability and climate neutrality. The contribution—taking into account that the concepts of community resilience and urban transition have changed as a consequence of COVID-19—critically discusses innovative frameworks and funding opportunities that Horizon Europe will put in place to boost sustainable urban areas in Europe, driving a transition to 100 Positive Energy Districts and 100 climate-neutral cities by 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Europe has a wealth of community forest arrangements. This paper aims to transcend the diversity of locally specific terms and forms, to highlight the value of considering them inclusively. Building on methods to make sense of diversity, we use reflexive grounded inquiry in fifteen cases in Italy, Scotland, Slovenia and Sweden. Within four dimensions (forest, community, relationships between them, and relationships with wider society), we identify 43 subdimensions to describe them collectively. Our approach shows how European arrangements contribute to wider discourses of collective natural resource management. Both tradition and innovation in Europe inform options for environmental governance. Arrangements challenge the distinction between 'communities of place' and 'communities of interest', with implications for social and environmental justice. They exemplify multilevel environmental governance through both vertical and horizontal connections. Emerging from long histories of political and environmental pressures, they have a role in enhancing society's connection with nature and adaptive capacity.

Building on the active aging framework, the aim of this study, carried out between 2016 and 2018, is to analyze concrete experiences of older individuals acting as key players of social change in six local communities of five European countries (Bulgaria, Denmark, England, France, Spain). The 19 seniors involved in the study, according to social contexts, individual past experiences, knowledge, and motivations, acted as senior social entrepreneurs, trying to build a pathway towards social solutions for unmet social problems they detected in local communities. Data were collected via templates and questionnaires and analyzed using the thematic analysis. The results highlighted that the 16 local initiatives created by seniors concerned social problems such as food waste, social isolation, multicultural integration, etc. The social solutions implemented by seniors seemed to have the potential to produce social value and, to different degrees, encouraging results and impact. Since this "social experiment" provided evidence that senior social entrepreneuring could be a driver to solve societal problems, policy makers should sustain the spread of both social entrepreneurial mindset and practices at the European level, for catalyzing the active potential of older people for the benefit of European local communities.