Social innovation in local development

This report presents background research on the work carried out by Nordregio in the project “Social Innovation in Local Development in the Nordic Countries and Scotland”, which was commissioned by the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Working Group on Demography and Welfare. The main objectives of the project were to investigate the concept of social innovation in relation to local and rural development, study the governance context in social innovation in rural areas in the Nordics and Scotland, conduct case studies in rural areas in all the Nordic countries and Scotland, as well as study the existing support systems for social innovation in particular in rural areas. The case studies are summarised in a separate document and on the project’s website.