Yoksullukla Mücadele Etmede ve Sürdürülebilir Kalkınmaya Ulaşmada Sosyal İnovatif Uygulamaların Rolü

Abstract

Combating poverty and sustaining development is one of the most significant challenges humanity needs to overcome. Governments, local institutions, non-profit organizations, academia, and companies are making great efforts to alleviate poverty and ensure sustainable development. However, these efforts cannot be reached the desired level in changing and transforming the world. Therefore, these problems, which were addressed in conventional ways, must be considered and resolved through “innovative approaches”. The aim of this study is to address the concept of social innovation, which can be used as a solution to social problems in general, and as a tool in combating poverty and regional development in particular, with examples of successful applications. In this sense, firstly, the concept of social innovation is discussed in the context of poverty alleviation and sustainable development through qualitative research. This study also evaluates the role of social innovation practices and solutions in poverty reduction and sustainable rural development by analyzing two cases such as the KIVA microcredit system and community-supported agriculture. These cases have been examined in terms of innovativeness, sustainability, social impact, target audience, and institutional structure. As a result, it revealed that the cases mentioned above contribute to poverty reduction and regional development in terms of innovation, target audience, sustainability and social impact.