Abstracts

Policy impacts on social innovation can have two directions: one is the implication and impact that a policy has on the Social Innovation, and the other is vice-versa and concerns the impact that Social Innovation can have on policies. The paper outines implications, impacts and roles that policies can have for specific cases of Social Innovation with the example of social farming. Interesting, social farming shows how impacts from a Social Innovation to Policy become prevalent i) when a new/specific policy gets triggered by the Social Innovation, defined as a direct policy implication; and ii) the policy implications of Social Innovation for other policies and for the political framework. Both is found in the case of new social farming regulations in Europe which were created after the social farming movement emerged and sought recognition. The first initiative for coherent policy frames was the “Witzenhausen Position paper on the Added Value of Social Farming” in 2017 that had an impact on EU level. Today, there are different versions and stages of implementation of social farming across Europe and the paper will assess and discuss their particular relevance.