Narratives of Change or Changing the Narrative? An Exploration of Narratives in Rural Social Innovation

ABSTRACT Social innovation (SI) has been conceptualised in the literature as changing social relations, involving new ways of doing, organising, framing and knowing. Of particular interest is that SI initiatives also engage in the construction of reality through new ways of framing and knowing through the narratives they construct and spread. However, the research addressing narratives of change in particular in rural SI is limited. With this in mind, the current paper makes an attempt to analyse the narratives of change of SI initiatives in rural Portugal and Austria. Based on the data collected within and around the SI initiatives and actors engaged in local development, some of the narratives are presented and discussed. The findings suggest that the narratives of decision‐making divide, procedures and recognition, as well as of constraint and competition are strongly present in two case studies. However, the results point towards narratives of change that rural SI initiatives construct as a way of challenging the above narratives. In addition, the paper engages with three propositions as a way of changing the narrative , reflecting on the narratives of change of bringing rural back in, promoting and supporting experimentation and focusing on opportunity‐led rural SI.