Social innovation in rural areas

Excerpt

This special issue is dedicated to the various forms of social innovations in rural areas. In 2017, at the biannual Conference of the Austrian Sociological Association in Graz, the Working Group “Rural Social Research” organized three sessions covering this topic. The decision to address this issue was motivated by the fact that rural areas are facing significant challenges: migration, demographic change, dismantling of infrastructure, to name but a few, with more or less serious consequences affecting the quality of life of the rural population. However, in some places these challenges are being actively addressed with new ideas. This special issue aims to present the results of these sessions and to discuss current and innovative answers to tackle the challenges faced in rural areas. Before doing so, we want to reflect upon the concept of social innovation by asking what is meant by the term, in which contexts it is taken up, and who has a particular interest in promoting this idea and why. …