Engaging Society for Spatial Transformation
Grassroots innovations for sustainable development: Towards a new research
and policy agenda (Seyfang & Smith)
- Grass root innovations= networks of activists and organisations generating
novel bottom-up solutions for sustainable development; solutions that
respond to the local situation and the interests and values of the
communities involved
o Why?
Generates socially embedded changes in behaviour
Local citizens/institutions/activists ‘own’ and embody
sustainable development
o But, point of critique: outsourcing the welfare state to local
levels/citizens?
- Understanding sustainable innovation
o Challenges for transforming systems of production & consumption:
Entrenched cognitive, social, economic, institutional and
technological processes lock us into trajectories and lock out
sustainable alternatives
Socio-technical regime
o Which is ultimately formed by diverse social
actors who negotiate innovation
o Changes should be connected and synchronised
amongst all actors
o The niche framework: actors are prepared to work with specific
functionalities, accept teething problems (with higher costs),
investing in improvements of new technology/markets
Green niches sustainable development
Niches are potential sources of innovative ideas (or models or
blueprints)
But: ecopreneur + intermediary organisations more
attuned to market and commercial imperatives needed
to assist in ‘bridging’
Niches need first-order and second-order learning
First-order: the technical implications of the innovation
Second-order: socio-cultural values underpinning the
nice (institutional changes + context-related
implications for appropriation)
- Some characteristics of grassroots innovations
o Niches: oftentimes exists within the market economy (but sheltered,
e.g. through tax-breaks)
Need to attract finance/be profitable eventually
o Grassroots innovations: exists in the social economy
Social economy= profit is reinvested into the grassroots
Social need + ideology > profits
- Opportunities presented by grassroots innovations
o Intrinsic benefits; not seeking regime change
Aggregate impact: local projects (low impact with regards to
sustainability), but if wider policies lead to more of them;
more impact (aggregate)
, Engaging Society for Spatial Transformation
Sense of community/social capital/civic engagement/more
access to services and facilities
Knowledge about localities (this lacks with top-down
approaches)
o Diffusion benefits; seeking regime change
Collective efforts to transform the market system itself (e.g.
through participation in an alternative market/consumption
behaviour)
Comparative power (showing the difference between niche
and mainstream) conversation starter about transforming
the mainstream
- Challenges confronting activity at grassroot level
o Intrinsic challenges
Skills/resources are necessary
Short-term funding (surviving)
o Diffusion challenges
Upscaling difficult (geographical rootedness/small-scale)
Being ‘other’ than mainstream (ideological) makes diffusion
difficult
Limited power of the niche and limited capacity of the
incumbent regime to become more sustainable
Policy-makers risk aversion
Local action should be connected with higher level
policies/infrastructures institutional change
- On the one hand, we need research and policy that contributes to the
creation of diverse grassroots innovations and engenders a variety of
sustainable practices. On the other, research and policy is needed that
learns form the wealth of alternative means of provision and embeds that
social learning into the mainstream
Citizens Engagement in Spatial Planning, Shaping Places Together (Horlings et
al.)
- Why are citizen initiatives on the rise?
o Responding to neo-liberal market ideologies
Sustainability/post-growth
Just city; right-to-the-city
o Failing public action by local governments
o Post-2008 financial crisis
- The roles and practices of collective citizen engagement in spatial planning
o Shift from government to governance
Decentralization; participative planning; co-creation
Interdependency of private, civic society and public actors
- Spatial planning
o 5 key elements assessment lens
Actors: diversity, capacities and networks and collaborations
in which citizens engage (also change over time)
Individual
Grassroots innovations for sustainable development: Towards a new research
and policy agenda (Seyfang & Smith)
- Grass root innovations= networks of activists and organisations generating
novel bottom-up solutions for sustainable development; solutions that
respond to the local situation and the interests and values of the
communities involved
o Why?
Generates socially embedded changes in behaviour
Local citizens/institutions/activists ‘own’ and embody
sustainable development
o But, point of critique: outsourcing the welfare state to local
levels/citizens?
- Understanding sustainable innovation
o Challenges for transforming systems of production & consumption:
Entrenched cognitive, social, economic, institutional and
technological processes lock us into trajectories and lock out
sustainable alternatives
Socio-technical regime
o Which is ultimately formed by diverse social
actors who negotiate innovation
o Changes should be connected and synchronised
amongst all actors
o The niche framework: actors are prepared to work with specific
functionalities, accept teething problems (with higher costs),
investing in improvements of new technology/markets
Green niches sustainable development
Niches are potential sources of innovative ideas (or models or
blueprints)
But: ecopreneur + intermediary organisations more
attuned to market and commercial imperatives needed
to assist in ‘bridging’
Niches need first-order and second-order learning
First-order: the technical implications of the innovation
Second-order: socio-cultural values underpinning the
nice (institutional changes + context-related
implications for appropriation)
- Some characteristics of grassroots innovations
o Niches: oftentimes exists within the market economy (but sheltered,
e.g. through tax-breaks)
Need to attract finance/be profitable eventually
o Grassroots innovations: exists in the social economy
Social economy= profit is reinvested into the grassroots
Social need + ideology > profits
- Opportunities presented by grassroots innovations
o Intrinsic benefits; not seeking regime change
Aggregate impact: local projects (low impact with regards to
sustainability), but if wider policies lead to more of them;
more impact (aggregate)
, Engaging Society for Spatial Transformation
Sense of community/social capital/civic engagement/more
access to services and facilities
Knowledge about localities (this lacks with top-down
approaches)
o Diffusion benefits; seeking regime change
Collective efforts to transform the market system itself (e.g.
through participation in an alternative market/consumption
behaviour)
Comparative power (showing the difference between niche
and mainstream) conversation starter about transforming
the mainstream
- Challenges confronting activity at grassroot level
o Intrinsic challenges
Skills/resources are necessary
Short-term funding (surviving)
o Diffusion challenges
Upscaling difficult (geographical rootedness/small-scale)
Being ‘other’ than mainstream (ideological) makes diffusion
difficult
Limited power of the niche and limited capacity of the
incumbent regime to become more sustainable
Policy-makers risk aversion
Local action should be connected with higher level
policies/infrastructures institutional change
- On the one hand, we need research and policy that contributes to the
creation of diverse grassroots innovations and engenders a variety of
sustainable practices. On the other, research and policy is needed that
learns form the wealth of alternative means of provision and embeds that
social learning into the mainstream
Citizens Engagement in Spatial Planning, Shaping Places Together (Horlings et
al.)
- Why are citizen initiatives on the rise?
o Responding to neo-liberal market ideologies
Sustainability/post-growth
Just city; right-to-the-city
o Failing public action by local governments
o Post-2008 financial crisis
- The roles and practices of collective citizen engagement in spatial planning
o Shift from government to governance
Decentralization; participative planning; co-creation
Interdependency of private, civic society and public actors
- Spatial planning
o 5 key elements assessment lens
Actors: diversity, capacities and networks and collaborations
in which citizens engage (also change over time)
Individual
