Social Innovation and Rural Development. Two Longitudinal Case Studies from the North-East Romania

Social innovation has an incontestable role in the vitality and development of rural communities, as it results from the literature devoted to this subject. However, due to the difficulties of defining, identifying and measuring social innovation, there are still many unclear aspects, leaving room for different interpretations. In this paper we address some theoretical aspects pointed out by the authors who have studied social innovation indirectly, as a mean by which economic growth can be reached, but also directly, from a sociological perspective, as a determinant of social change because it constitutes a solution to a social problem which leads to the improvement of the existing situation, respectively to the increase of the quality of life for groups of individuals, communities and society as a whole. Through the examples presented in the paper, we will show how social innovation can contribute to reducing social inequalities within local communities, to economic well-being, to developing entrepreneurial spirit and to balanced and sustainable territorial development of rural space.