Abstract
The context of territory-based innovation processes includes both barriers and incentives. This chapter presents the research and findings of a study conducted with two sets of five community-led initiatives, one composed of small-sized initiatives and another composed of larger-sized initiatives, with a view to identify barriers and incentives to territory-based innovation. Following a mixed-coding approach, data was analysed to identify barriers and incentives to territory-based innovation prompted by the use of digital tools, by the interaction among actors, and by contextual factors. Results from both types initiatives show significant technology weariness, still initiatives praise the effectiveness of some digital tools, namely social media, in reaching their audience. Both types of initiatives evidence disappointment towards cultural traits and bureaucracy, being these factors experienced as a disheartening barrier. Yet, initiatives also commend the know-how and flexibility of specific actors, with whom initiatives interact with closely when performing their activities.
TopBackground
Communities and Networks in the Process of Territory-Based Innovation
The growth of community-based initiatives is one of the key factors in the process of developing a territory, enabling it to develop more appropriate strategies and solutions to eliminate barriers to its growth. Involving community-based initiatives in territorial development can provide local communities with effective opportunities to participate in decision-making in their region's social, economic, cultural and political life (Malek & Costa, 2014; Zeng et al., 2019).
From a territorial innovation standpoint, the term “community-based initiative” is not intended to describe a specific institutional framework (Seyfang & Smith, 2007), but rather the organization of actions in which entities, communities, and individuals are motivated to cooperate, in search of mutually beneficial solutions. Thus, community-based initiatives aim to promote the sustainable development of the territory, generating new bottom-up solutions adjusted to the local situation and the interests and values of the communities involved (Amorim, 2015).
The development of networks that relate to the territory and value community knowledge is of great importance to the process of territorial innovation, because of its ability to suggest proposals that “do not distance or detach themselves from local particularities” (Sampaio et al., 2008, p. 245). According to Zambanini et al. (2014), a network consists of a set of relationships between members, which are established through their interactions and needs. Involving community-based initiatives in these networks benefits the mobilization of regional endogenous potential and its resources, as well as human capital and innovation capacities, to promote the development of local economies.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Network of Collaboration: Formed from direct or indirect relationships of entities or individuals who share resources in order to achieve compatible common goals.
Community-Led Territorial Innovation: Recognizes the central role of collective actors—engaged in multiple interactions with different entities—in the creation of public value resulting from territorial resources.
Community: The group of people who share affinities and, voluntarily, develop joint actions, in a physical and/or virtual environment, in the context of a territory and produce, repurpose and share information relevant to the development of that territory.
Hypermediation: A complex network of production, exchange and consumption of processes that take place in an environment characterized by countless social actors-agents, digital media and technological languages (Scolari, 2015).
Territorial Innovation: The interactive process of social and/or economic value creation based on—existing or nurtured—located (and/or external) resources.
Social Innovation: The innovative activities and services that aim at meeting a social need and that usually arise from individual participant actors with a very specific skillset, which cannot be transferred through top-down approaches, but rather the opposite, regardless of its intended external stimulation (Mulgan, 2006).
Digital Mediation: A form of computer mediated communication (Castells, 2007).