Collaborations in regions Communities and social innovation for sustainable regions

Rural regions can be faced with major economic and social challenges. Due to a wide range of structural challenges, some regions have had to be creative in finding new development pathways and developing new forms of cooperation and coexistence. The future viability of a region does not only depend on technological innovation but also social innovation that can trigger important social-technical transformation processes. The aim of the WIRinREGIONEN project is to investigate the innovation capability of regions towards social transformations and to identify factors influencing such capabilities. The central question is: How can ecosystems of social innovation be mapped in regions and what contributions do they make to innovations capabilities and social transformations in regions? For the first time, the WIRinREGIONEN project team maps social innovation processes theoretically and empirically in regional innovation ecosystems, investigating social innovation in their institutional context.

Together with local and regional partners, including Wertewandel, Netzwerk Zukunftsorte, heimatBEWEGEN and the Bundesverband Soziokultur, regional framework conditions for social innovation processes are being examined. With the help of innovation biographies, a better understanding of regional innovation ecosystems derived of social innovation will be created. In addition, we will investigate how different forms of social innovations advance regional socio-ecological transformations and thus strengthen the sustainable development of regions.