The present paper identifies existing discourses on social innovation and analyses them in the context of the structures that both define and use them. As Moulaert and Hamdouch (2006) stress, the literature on social innovation deals mainly with agents (such as policy and strategy intermediaries, business services, public research institutions, universities), their motivations and roles. Nevertheless, it offers insufficient information on their behaviour. Aiming to address this gap in knowledge, we ask a twofold question: why does social innovation take place and how does it happen? By relating social innovation to concepts of ‘culture’ and ‘networks’, we will look into how innovation is understood and implemented at the moment and what does this mean for the performance of the process itself. By challenging current SI discourses and definitions, we will explore a different analysis of social innovation – from a post-structuralism point of view. By advocating for such an approach, we believe that the interpretations which it involves enrich the existing perspectives on SI and encourage discussions on a diversity of process mechanisms and outputs that add greatly to the field of social innovation. [Extracted from authors’ abstract].
Ilie, Elisabeta G. and During, Roel (2012) An analysis of social innovation discourses in Europe : concepts and strategies of social innovation (This is how we do it!), Wageningen, [Alterra Transition processes, Institutions, Management and Policy Programme] Wageningen University.
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