Aligning social networks and co-designed visions can foster systemic innovation in the Alps. A new paper from the PLUS MountainPathways project just got published in the journal Regional Environmental Change (REC).
By combining social network analysis and visioning, we identify innovation capacities in two case studies in the Alps. On the one hand, the Visp mountain region shows better preparedness for general innovation given collaboration network characteristics such as a better defined small world topology, better capacity for coordination, and better quality of collaboration relationships.
This may be explained by the efficient and more decentralized Swiss innovation policy, and a rather prosperous, stable economy. On the other hand, the higher centralisation of the Visp district may also have limiting effects on innovation through potentially suppressing innovation from the network’s periphery and clusters that diverge from the goals of the more central actors. The French Haute-Romanche district may have advantages here in allowing — and alluring — a more thriving mental and cultural space for out-of-the-box thinkers to thrive and come up with globally more innovative ideas and visions, as indicated by the comparison of both study site’s visions.
More details can be found here: external page https://rdcu.be/dh1u9