CBI Pro-Akademia

The present thematic volume of Acta Innovations is devoted to different areas of innovation in rural areas, especially social ones.

The articles published in the journal are based on papers presented during the 16^th Convention of the Polish Sociological Association in September 2016. The final form of the volume is the result of discussions as part of the group “Innovations in rural areas: new opportunities for development or the danger of marginalization?” conducted by Prof. Hanna Podedworna from Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW), Dr. Katarzyna Zajda from University of Lodz and Dr. Ilona Matysiak from Maria Grzegorzewska University. The group was organized in cooperation with the Section of Rural and Agriculture Sociology of the Polish Sociological Association.

The volume consists of ten articles. In the first of them, Hanna Podedworna discusses the subject of changes in the importance of different innovations in rural development. The main purpose of her paper is to analyse how the new network model of innovation is being created and what groups of social actors participate in the process of change. In her opinion, these actors are farmers, NGOs, public and local government officers, as well as entrepreneurs.

The other texts refer to the role of individual and collective actors in the implementation of different kinds of innovation in rural areas and entrepreneurship of rural residents.

Katarzyna Zajda writes about the cooperation between non-governmental organizations and other local entities in the context of implementing social innovations. In the paper, she points to the need to improve cooperation between NGOs and the public sector, and to persuade public sector entities (especially communal offices) to implement the innovations.

Ilona Matysiak focuses on the innovativeness of young rural residents. Her paper is concerned with checking whether the young and educated rural inhabitants supply their local communities with new products, services and distribution methods atypical of the rural environment. The author mentions some correlates of young people's innovativeness defined this way, such as originating from a particular village, having family social capital, experiencing city living and specific motivations accompanying the decision to live in rural areas.

Ilona Matysiak is also the author of a text devoted to the innovativeness of older rural residents. In this article, she explores the potential of elderly people living in rural areas in terms of implementing social innovations related to care provision. The article is based on a literature review and in-depth interviews conducted in the Netherlands in 2017.

The text by Anna Wrona concentrates on urban to rural migrants. In her opinion, the influx of urban to rural migrants can carry innovation, but only under certain conditions, and its extent is usually limited. Based on her research, she concludes that the influx of urban to rural migrants seems to be less a source than the catalyst of innovation in the rural culture.

Małgorzata Dziekanowska discusses the problem of activity of rural women, pointing to innovations designed to improve the quality of life in local communities, to identify their needs and social problems, and to make attempts to address these.

The present volume also includes articles on the importance of innovation in agritourism (by Maria Miczyńska-Kowalska) and the relationships between social innovations and the social economy as illustrated by the example of activities undertaken in the last decade in the rural commune of Bałtów from Świętokrzyskie voivodship (by Kamila Hernik). There is also a paper on co-operative research as a scientific innovation and a new research paradigm, contributed by Wojciech Goszczyński, Piotr Stankiewicz, Sandra Karner and Nicoleta Chioncel as the effect of collaboration in an international project entitled “Facilitating Alternative Agro-Food Networks – Stakeholder Perspective on Research Needs” (FAAN) funded within the 7th EU Framework Programme. Eventually Barbara Szczepańska presents “Social Factors in the Implementation of Agricultural Development (On the Example of Lower Silesia)”.

The editors of the volume and the authors would like to thank the organizations whose support has made its publication possible, such as the Rural Development Foundation and the Association of Polish Rural Communes and all anonymous reviewers.

We hope the papers included herein will be of interest for the readers, especially those who perceive the implementation of various innovations in rural areas as the opportunity for rural development.