the revitalisation of Carpathian mountain communities Bill Slee - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The potential for social innovation in the revitalisation of Carpathian mountain communities

Bill Slee The Rural Development Company Emeritus Fellow, The James Hutton Institute

My background

• A social scientist

(geography and rural development)

• 30 years living in the

same village

• But now a real local

resident not just someone who sleeps in the village

• Involved and active in

several third sector bodies

What I want to talk about

• Contested meanings
• Our SIMRA definition
• A brief history of social innovation
• Its contemporary relevance to marginal rural

areas – some Scottish examples

• The specific relevance to the Carpathian region
• Critical points and obstacles in post socialist

countries

On holiday last week

• A friendly society to

support poor and ill people (established in 1820)

• A village shop where it

is the only shop in the village

• A traditional water

powered corn mill now a charitable trust

Definitions and meanings

• NB Not in the Oslo definition of innovation
• Novelty vs solution?
• Process or outcome?
• The primacy of the social dimension?
• Intentionality vs serendipity?
• Reconfiguration of networks, structures, governance
• Citizen-led or citizen-engaged?
• Focus on disadvantaged groups only?
• Often addressing “wicked” problems

What is social innovation?

“the reconfiguring of social practices, in response to societal challenges, which seeks to enhance outcomes on societal well-being and necessarily includes the engagement of civil society actors”

• Reconfiguring: doing

something differently

• Addressing societal

challenges

• Seeking enhanced

societal wellbeing

• Involving active

engagement of civil society

The scope is almost limitless

• The old dualism of market

and state is a mis- representation of how the world is today

• The third sector is becoming

an ever more important player in delivering products and services

• Civil society often ends up

picking up the pieces after the failure of market or states

• Retail
• Energy production
• Farm and forest management
• Financial services
• Food
• Social care for young, elderly,

disabled etc.

• Tourism services
• Environmental protection
• Recycling
• Refugees
• Transport
• Housing
• Business support services

History and emergence

• A long history connected to social movements (universal

suffrage, abolition of slavery, community forestry, to Me Too)

• Often social innovation is associated with dissatisfaction

with status quo (19thC factory villages; community forestry; large scale landholdings for hunting rather than production)

• Mostly grounded in civil society action
• Sometimes issue-based, sometimes place-based groups

driving social innovation (sometimes both)

• Sometimes suppressed; sometimes encouraged
• Sometimes embodied in new policy

Where we are in rural Europe today

Three (or four) sectors-

• Primary
• Secondary
• Tertiary
• (Quaternary)

Delivered by-

• Markets
• Public sector
• Third sector
• Hybrid entities, e.g.

partnerships

It is the boxed bits that I want to focus on

A crisis-driven reorganisation of economic activity is taking place

Private Public

Third sector

• c. 1960-1980

2017 Private Public Third sector Western Isles Council Scotland

Social Innovation’s contemporary significance for marginal rural areas

Generic drivers

• Weakesses of markets
• Weaknesses in the

state’s capacity to act Marginal rural areas

• Large proportion of old people
• Age-selective outmigration
• Overdependence on primary

sector

• Low added value per capita
• High level of semi-subsistence

activity

• Low incomes/poverty
• Weak infrastructures
• A long way from centres of

power

Some Scottish examples

Two places

• Portsoy pop 1700- a

coastal community

• Braemar pop 400– a

mountain village

• Huntly pop 4000 a small

town Areas of activity

• Visitor attractions/tourism

promotion

• Renewable energy
• Social care
• Traditional skills (boat

building; traditional building restoration)

• Food fairs
• Caravan sites and

bunkhouses

• The trigger: a celebration of 300 years a harbour 25

years ago

• The consequence: a vibrant community-owned

development hub driving local development with new projects emerging to revitalise the place

This is what it looks like in practice

Braemar – a mountain community driven by a strong community development trust

• Took over a castle as tourist attraction
• Restored traditional rural buildings
• Developed a community hydro scheme
• Developed social care project
• Developed community gardens
• Now thinking about social needs housing project

Huntly: a small town with significant socio- economic challenges seeking positive change

• Driven by municipal initiative that resulted

in third sector development trust

• Activities include recreation, tourism,

green transport, farmers market, local food, microbusiness support

• Getting a turbine as income stream was

vital

Challenges in the Carpathians

• Legacy effects of five decades of state socialism

especially the all-embracing nature of the states activity

• Weak development of civil society, distrust by state of

some civil society organisations and a drift towards authoritarian nationalism in some countries

• Fragility in the market economy - villages “dying”
• Collective action tainted by past narratives of enforced

collectivisation

• Low levels of social capital
• Weak institutional support mechanisms

Five critical points in delivering social innovation in the Carpathian region

• Recognise what assets you have and build on them: the

most low carbon lifestyles in Europe?

• Accept the limits of action by the state and the market
• Share good practice in social innovation and build on it
• Build new partnerships of academics, state actors

businesses and civil society to create action spaces to deliver sustainable development-rural lives are not constructed in silos!

• Recognise the scope for the advantaged to become

more advantaged

Five obstacles to be overcome

• Break down the ivory towers and silos of science and

recognise and build on different types of knowledge: local endogenous knowledge (but positive signs here)

• Recognise and reduce the negative factors: corruption,

mistrust and the drift towards authoritarian nationalism

• Recognise weaknesses of civil society organisations (though

improving), the need to strengthen them and the need to equalise opportunity

• Step up in scale from the household to the community as the

unit of response to these new times and new challenges

• Create policies that nurture rather than stifle civil society

action

If we can get the chemistry right the third sector can be highly responsive –

• ften better than

markets or the state - in delivering local sustainable development

• utcomes

Strong(er) social capital is needed, esp more bridging and linking capital The state needs to deliver supportive framework policies The local state must be trusted by civil society actors and that trust must be reciprocated Social innovation must work alongside not displace markets

THANK YOU