Innovation in strategic planning: Social innovation and co-production under a common analytical framework

Abstract

The article is aimed at discussing social innovation and co-production under a common analytical framework in order to contribute, without attempts of comprehensiveness, to the debate on how to indicate new opportunities to foster innovation in strategic planning. In the Paper co-production and social innovation are considered as mutual supporting elements in the creation of ‘trading zones’: spaces of strong interaction for mobilizing varied (and also conflicting) collective intelligence; middle ground spaces of confrontation able to institutionalize co-production and scale-up social innovation, in a long-term process that might transform how local institutions and strategic planning operate. Within this framework, the case study of Bologna in Italy is discussed, highlighting criticalities and opportunities in a city that has invested in specific planning mechanisms aimed at linking coproduction and social innovation within a common policy effort.