M. Sc. Juliane Freyboth

Social Innovations in Rural Areas - Innovative Approaches to Services of General Interest from the Perspective of Social Entrepreneurship

Motivation

Securing the provision of Services of General Interest is a growing challenge for sparsely populated and shrinking areas. Due to an increasing average age of the rural population as well as continuing tendencies of rural exodus, new demand structures and financing problems for Services of General Interest arise. In order to be able to guarantee the supply of the population in peripheral rural areas, innovative solutions are increasingly demanded and developed. These are often taken up by social innovations, which provide new ways of achieving social goals. In addition, new actors are coming into focus, which are countering the financing problems of the public sector with new organizational structures. In the light of these developments, the role of social entrepreneurship as a carrier of social innovations in rural areas is growing. In order to secure the supply of the population permanently and area, not only the generation but especially the continuation of social innovations is necessary.

State of research

Despite the relevance of the topic, there is no consistent understanding in Germany of which criteria speak for the continuation of an innovative approach and which success factors influence it. Especially for rural areas, there exists a lack of research in the German literature. The first explanatory approaches come from the field of regional development and refer to the Programme of Action for the Regional Provision of Public Services as well as district developments and projects from the funding program "Social City".  The role of social enterprises in the initiation and implementation of social innovations in the context of Services of General Interest, as well as related explanatory approaches to the continuation of innovative solutions, have so far been insufficiently illuminated in the German literature.

Objectives and research questions

The aim of this dissertation is to provide a new understanding of the continuation of innovative approaches in the field of Services of General Interest. The focus is on the sustainable implementation of social innovations and on social enterprises as important actors of social innovations. Explicitly, the following research questions are to be answered in the context of this dissertation:

• What contribution do social enterprises make as carriers of social innovations in securing Services of General Interest in rural areas of Germany?
• Which success factors support the continuation of social innovations initiated by social enterprises in rural areas of Germany?
• Which recommendations can be derived for social entrepreneurs and politics in order to promote the continuation of social innovations in rural areas?