Social innovation and territorial development policies: the case of the Land Exchange (Bolsa de Terras)

• Autor(a) principal: Bittencourt, Bernadete de Lourdes
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Outros Autores: Ronconi, Luciana Francisco de Abreu
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por; eng
• Título da fonte: Revista de Administração Pública
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/article/view/64495
• topic: territorial development; social economy; social innovation; public policies; desarrollo del territorio; economía social; innovación social; políticas públicas; inovação social; economia social; desenvolvimento do território; políticas públicas

Social innovation policies have sparked extensive discussions on the future of European socio-economic development, despite there being very few studies that link them to the question of territorial development. This paper analyses how social innovation initiatives encourage the development of policies capable of boosting territorial development. The case study used, which is based on a qualitative analysis, describes the experience of the Bolsa de Terras (Land Exchange), which, having been conceived within the field of the social economy in order to make use of abandoned land, has been transformed into a national policy in Portugal. The results show the initiatives of the social economy as an economic powerhouse, capable of generating more sustainable local support systems. They also show that the network structure, based on cooperation, appears to be a key mechanism in fostering social innovation policies.