Social Innovations In The Swiss Mountain Region

Swiss mountain regions are under pressure: Economic growth is increasingly being questioned in the face of a wide range of challenges. This research project analyzes the role of social innovation in connection with growth issues in the Bernese Oberland. Social innovations are new approaches to solving social and economic challenges that involve new forms of cooperation (e.g. employee sharing in tourism, new forms of basic services, public-private cooperation in the renovation of second homes). We focus on tourism, the construction industry and the health care sector.

The project is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) (contribution number 179112). It has a duration of four years (Nov. 2018 - Oct. 2022).

NEWS

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From 2024 onwards, social innovations will be part of the federal government's location promotion programme insofar as they trigger regional economic impulses. Social innovations are approaches to solving regional challenges and thus contribute to regional development. A research team from the University of Bern and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) has examined in detail how social innovations can arise and which actors are involved.

MRD Talk #3

Anna-Lena Stettler and Heike Mayer presented their study "100% Valposciavo" on the topic of social innovations in the online webinar entitled "How can social innovations contribute to local mountain economies? Learnings from science and practice", organised by MRD, Mountain Research and Development. A summary and the recording of the online talk is published on the homepage of MRD.

Workshops in the Bernese Oberland

We were able to present the results of our research project in the Bernese Oberland at two workshops. The event in Spiez (organized by Volkswirtschaft Berner Oberland) explored the question of which locational advantages social innovations offer.

Workshops in the Bernese Oberland

We were able to present the results of our research project in the Bernese Oberland at two workshops. At an event in Meiringen (organized by the Haslital platform), the question was asked which innovations are important in the mountain region and what role social innovations play.

Social innovation: How important for communities?

In the latest issue of the Swiss Community magazine, we answer the question about the importance of social innovations for Swiss communities. In the article, we present the key findings of the research project and give advice on what municipalities can do if they want to promote and support social innovation.

New Publication

Wirth, Samuel; Tschumi, Pascal; Mayer, Heike; Bandi Tanner, Monika (2023). Change agency in social innovation: an analysis of activities in social innovation processes. Regional studies, regional science, 10(1), pp. 33-51. Taylor & Francis 10.1080/21681376.2022.2157324

New Publication

Tschumi, Pascal; Mayer, Heike (2022). Social innovations in healthcare provision: an analysis of knowledge types and their spatial context. Geografiska annaler: Series B, Human geography, pp. 1-21. Taylor & Francis 10.1080/04353684.2022.2124927

New Publication

Wirth, Samuel; Bandi Tanner, Monika; Mayer, Heike (2022). Social innovations in tourism: Analysing processes, actors, and tipping points. Tourism geographies, pp. 1-19. Taylor & Francis 10.1080/14616688.2022.2155697

Contributions to conference in Dublin

The research team presented their latest results at the Global Conference on Economic Geography in Dublin (7-10 June). The majority of the team travelled by train and ferry to minimise the impact on the climate.
Samuel Wirth presented results on the process of social innovations in tourism and their success factors, especially in the crucial phase when social innovations can expand regionally.
Andrea Winiger presented her results on strategies of growth-independent enterprises in the Bernese Oberland.
Pascal Tschumi presented results from his study on how social innovations can influence regulations in the health sector.
Many interested people attended the presentation and participated in the subsequent discussions.
The slides of all PowerPoint presentations are accessible here.

Inventory of social innovations published

Swiss mountain regions are certainly innovative when it comes to finding solutions to specific challenges faced by peripheral areas. On this website, a list of socially innovative ideas from the Bernese Oberland is made publicly available. Through a comprehensive analysis of more than 970 innovative projects, the research team identified 68 social innovations that have emerged in the Bernese Oberland in recent years.

Social innovation in tourism policy?

In the book contribution "Touristische Soziale Innovationen" Samuel Wirth and Monika Bandi-Tanner showed that 41 out of 68 social innovations are related to tourism. It was noticeable that in 34 cases tourism actors are involved and 26 of them are new tourism offers. Tourism showed to be an ideal field for the development of social innovations. This is interesting because through Innotour an instrument for the promotion of innovations in tourism exists and can therefore be used for the promotion of Social Innovations. In the context of the strengthened importance of sustainable development in tourism as a new fifth pillar in the new tourism policy, one may be curious to see how the new goal "contribute to sustainable development" concretely pushes the promotion instruments to further development and thus probably favors the terrain also for the promotion of social innovations.

New article published

Another research article by the SNSF project team has been published in the journal Die Erde at the end of December 2021. It follows on from the previous publication and examines selected social innovations in the Bernese Oberland. The results indicate that social innovations can contribute to growth-independent regional and local development through choices made by the actors involved that promote (re)localization, decommercialization, low capital intensity, and self-governance.

Mayer, H., Tschumi, P., Perren, R., Seidl, I., Winiger, A., Wirth, S. 2021. How Do Social Innovations Contribute to Growth-Independent Territorial Development? Case Studies from a Swiss Mountain Region. Earth 152(4), pp. 218-231.

The article is freely available.

Book chapter published

The team of the SNSF research project is happy to announce the publication of the English translation of last year's German book chapter. It is titled «Growth independence through social innovations? An analysis of potential growth effects of social innovations in a Swiss mountain region» and is available for free download at transcript.

Tschumi, P., Winiger, A., Wirth, S., Mayer, H., Seidl, I., 2021. Growth independence through social innovations? An analysis of potential growth effects of social innovations in a Swiss mountain region, in: Lange, B., Hülz, M., Schmid, B., Schulz, C. (Eds.), Post-Growth Geographies. Spatial Relations of Diverse and Alternative Economies. transcript Verlag, Bielefeld, pp. 117–137.

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