1.1 Exploring the Politico-institutional Dimension of Social Innovation to Repoliticize Urban Governance Arrangements

Abstract

Paidakaki A, Moulaert F and Van den Broeck P (2018) Exploring the politico-institutional dimension of social innovation to repoliticize urban governance arrangements. In: Franz Y, Blotevogel HH and Danielzyk R (eds) Social Innovation in Urban and Regional Research. Vienna: Verlag der O¨sterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, pp. 11–22. People are not even aware that they are doing something socially innovative. This statement is a recurring theme when dealing with social innovation (SI) in the academic and policymaking context. Although there is a significant body of literature on social innovation and interdisciplinary research programmes have gained a visible impact1 over time, there seems to be a gap between debating and doing social innovation. Catchwords such as scalability, institutionalization, the third sector and bottom-up practices illustrate the range of interest in SI, while self-organized citizens and grass-roots organisations apply counteracting mechanisms in their daily practices.