Loading...
2 results
Search Results
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
- Community-based initiatives and the politicization gap in socio-ecological transitions: Lessons from PortugalPublication . Mourato, João; Bussler, AlexandraCommunity-based initiatives (CBIs) are an embodiment and potential catalyst of societal change towards sustainability. In Portugal, they remain a largely untapped resource. This paper examines different nuances of CBIs’ societal change agency by proposing an innovative inquiry framework focused on substance, processes and outcomes via an actor, politics and governance-centered approach. Through an inward- versus outward-looking dialectical reflection on CBIs’ politicization dynamics, we analyze Portugal’s CBI landscape drawing upon previous research, databases and semi-structured interviews. We conclude that a politicization gap and the absence of both socio-political visibility and of favorable institutional and policy frameworks are crucial contextual premises hindering CBIs’ change agency. Notwithstanding, CBI’s transformative potential is undeniable. We find them perfectly positioned to mediate co-shaping processes between social innovators and incumbent institutions, contesting the latter’s unsustainable development logic. If CBIs and governments acknowledge the complementarity of their scope of societal change agency, CBIs’ transformational time may have arrived.
- The Politicisation gap in socio-ecological transitions: lessons from PortugalPublication . Mourato, João; Bussler, AlexandraThe multiple challenges of the Anthropocene set a new context for transformative social innovation towards a form of living and working based on the principles of sustainability. Community-based initiatives (CBIs), the most visible representatives of the latter, have started to appear worldwide and are increasingly perceived as a crucial actor in the socio-ecological transition towards sustainability. CBIs are receiving a growing attention from transdisciplinary academia. Yet, there remains a research blind spot on the transformative social innovation dynamics in Portugal. This paper addresses this gap by inquiring into Portugal’s CBI dynamics, appearance, buildup, reach and future transitional pathways. Having traversed a rapid and significant growth over the last decade, CBIs, their practices and discourses are still marginalised in Portugal’s public arenas. Therefore, this paper argues, Portuguese CBIs remain an untapped resource for socio-ecological transitions and institutional innovation in Portugal. We scrutinize why the latter falter to engage head-on with the public and political spheres and identify key contextual changes and premises that determine CBIs social innovation potential in Portugal: a) CBIs need to engage the existent institutional landscape and become politicized change actors in order to sit at key decisionmaking processes, and b) CBIs’ full potential is unlikely to bloom without favourable institutional frameworks and policy environments. This paper applies a value-based lens onto social transformation frameworks and engages in a wider theoretical debate on the role of niche actors, thereby adding to the existing literature on socio-ecological transitions. Based on an actor-, politics- and governance-centered approach, we ultimately inquire into Portugal’s CBI’s agency and how it can bring about wider structural change in a socio-ecological transitions.