This document outlines a research project studying the diffusion of social economy innovations in sustainable food. The research will examine innovations in organic/seasonal production, financing, food baskets, and short supply chains. It will analyze diffusion trajectories like deepening, widening, imitation, and certification. The research questions investigate the practices, trajectories, enabling factors, and implications of diffusion. Methods include quantitative analysis of 15 years of data on production/consumption actors and qualitative analysis of 10 initiatives per city to understand rationales and impacts. The research will collaborate across universities in Liège, Lille, and Manchester.

1. Benjamin Huybrechts
Guénaël Devillet
Bruno Frère
DISEIN-FOOD – Diffusing Social
Economy Innovations in the
Sustainable Food Sector
ARC – Actions de recherche
concertées

2. Social economy innovations
 Social economy initiatives: economic activities developed by
associations, cooperatives or foundations with the goal of addressing
pressing societal challenges in a participative way
 To meet these societal challenges, innovations emerge through new
products and service (or qualities): ex. integration of low-skilled
workers, fair trade, microfinance, local exchange trading systems,
short food supply chains, etc.
 Innovations are experimented in the context of ‘niches’ that
constitute incubation rooms embedded in territories and their social
interactions
 How are social economy innovations diffused beyond the niche level
and what are the causes and implications of different diffusion
trajectories?

3. Sustainable food
 Social economy innovations: organic and seasonal production, pre-
financing, food baskets, short(er) supply chains, consumer-producer
linkages, retail channels, etc.
 Different diffusion processes:
 Deepening: growth within extant supply chain (ex. community-supported
agriculture)
 Widening: growth through adoption by regime actors
 Imitation
 Certification
 Networks and partnerships
 Public regulation

4. Research questions - work
packages
Descriptive questions:
1. What are the specific practices that characterize SEIs in sustainable
food (products/services, organizational practices)?
2. What are the different diffusion trajectories of SEIs in a given
territory?
Analytical questions:
3. What are the factors that may explain the different diffusion
trajectories (levels of innovation, innovators and ‘regime’)?
4. What are the implications of the diffusion process on the regime and
on the innovators?

5. Combining three spotlights on common
questions
CES Segefa CLEO
Q1:
Characterizin
g SEIs
(Inter-)organizational
governance
Territorial
embeddness
Social
qualifications
Q2: Diffusion
trajectories
Economic diffusion Territorial diffusion Social interactions
Q3: Factors
enabling
diffusion
Economic/org.
factors at
innovator/regime
levels
Territorial factors Socio-political
factors
Q4:
Implications
of diffusion
Impacts on
regulation at
regime level and on
practices of social
economy innovators
Impacts on
enactment/develop
ment of the
territory
Impacts on
representations
(social/economic)
at regime and
innovators’levels

6. Methods
 Choice of three cities: Liège, Lille and Manchester
 Industrial past and post-industrial recovery
 Similar social and environmental challenges
 Active in and recognized for new social economy-based sustainable food
initiatives connecting urban/peripheric production and urban
consumption => yet different development stages

7. Methods
 Quantitative analysis:
 15-year longitudinal perspective on:
 Production and consumption actors/volumes for different sustainable
food SEIs
 Territorial development and types of actors involved (within and beyond
SE networks, replication and partnership)
 Cluster analysis of diffusion types and multiple regressions to
examine influence of different factors (ex. place, creation date,
etc.) Qualitative analysis of ten initiatives in each city to
understand rationale and implications of different diffusion
trajectories:
 Document analyses to understand discourses
 Interviews (at least 5 in each initiative) to understand
practices/perceptions

8. Collaborations
 Liège
 Lille
 Manchester

9. Changes with regard to previous
version
 Concepts: product/service innovations developed by
social economy actors (≠ ‘systemic innovation’)
 Research questions: focus on diffusion (not niche)
 Field of research: sustainable food (not fair trade)
 Area of research: three precise cities
 Methods