Social Innovation in Urban and Rural Areas: Empowerment, (Disruptive) Transformative Processes and Impact on Community Development

Dear Colleagues,

Urban and rural regions face diverse and complex challenges. Many actors involved in community development and spatial planning are therefore looking for novel solutions that can better address existing problems. In increasingly unfolding societal and scientific discourses on the topic, high hopes are placed on the potential of social innovations. It is typically assumed that socially innovative initiatives can bring empowerment to the actors involved, generate transformative—if not disruptive—dynamics, and bring about beneficial community development. Rarely, however, is there a concrete description of how these assumptions can be coherently conceptualized, which methodological research designs can be used to investigate, and to what extent they are de facto empirically evidenced or which systematic findings we already have about them.

The Special Issue aims to address these gaps. The focus will therefore be on how the empowerment of people, (disruptive) transformative processes, and the impact on community development can be understood in the context of social innovations. Spatially, the Special Issue will consider both urban and rural communities, including villages and small- and medium-sized towns.

On the one hand, contributions will be collected that are primarily theoretical and/or methodological in nature. Papers may address, but are not limited to:

• How can empowerment, (disruptive) transformative processes, and/or impact on community development be thought of in theoretical/conceptual terms in the context of social innovation?
• How can these phenomena be investigated in methodological terms?

On the other hand, empirical articles will be included as well. Based on collected data and case studies, they should answer one or more of the following questions using the example of socially innovative initiatives in urban and/or rural areas:

• How is empowerment empirically manifested in the context of social innovative initiatives? Who is empowered, and who is not? In what ways does empowerment occur? How was it achieved, and were there any specific measures to actively support empowerment? Are there facilitating or hindering factors or even limits to empowerment? Is empowerment perceived by the actors themselves, and if so, how? Which role did traditional or new power relations and controversies play in social innovation?
• How can transformative processes be described empirically in the context of social innovative initiatives? What has changed in concrete terms? How did the change take place (in which steps, disruptively or rather incrementally)? What exactly is the 'transformative' character of the social innovative initiatives? How stable has the transformation proven to be so far?
• Can the impact of socially innovative initiatives on community development be described? If not, what could be the reasons? If yes, which impact can be observed? What exactly could be further developed and how, or what developments could be triggered? What part did empowerment play in this? How is the impact perceived or evaluated by the actors themselves and by third parties (who were not involved)?

It is of course possible to discuss conceptual and/or methodological aspects in empirical contributions.

Contributions have to follow one of the three categories of papers (article, conceptual paper or review) for the journal and address the topic of the Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Gabriela Christmann
Prof. Dr. Ariane Sept
Dr. Ralph Richter
Guest Editors

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