Social Sciences and Governance

Social innovation in urban and territorial development examines how communities, cooperatives, and local institutions create new economic and governance arrangements to address problems that markets and central governments have failed to solve. Researchers trace how grassroots initiatives—solidarity economies, participatory budgeting, community land trusts—move from informal experiments to recognized policy frameworks, a process known as institutionalization. The field matters because cities and regions increasingly depend on these hybrid models to sustain local economies and deliver services, yet the conditions under which social innovation actually scales or gets absorbed without losing its democratic character remain contested. Active questions include how territorial governance can be restructured to support rather than co-opt community-led development, and what kinds of evaluation methods are capable of capturing outcomes that standard economic indicators miss.

Works

306,404

Total citations

299,767

Keywords

Social InnovationEconomic DevelopmentTerritorial GovernanceSolidarity EconomyCommunity EngagementInstitutionalization