Emergence and diffusion of social innovation through practice fields

The paper analyses how social innovations diffuse after their initial development. By taking a practice theories’ perspective, the research suggests that social innovations diffuse through travelling elements of material, competence and meaning rather than solely through social interaction. This explains why similar social innovations, for example, urban gardening initiatives, emerge at a global scale without interaction between actors of different initiatives. It is argued that practice fields of social innovations promote the diffusion. Practice fields are bundles of similar social innovation initiatives, for example, car-sharing, urban gardening, repair cafés, etc. and facilitate the travelling of elements. Several further advantages are related to studying social innovation with a practice theories’ approach. These are amongst others the focus on activity and doing in contrast to different actors and their roles, the consideration of technology as an integral part of a practice and not as something opposed to social innovation, and the pronunciation of meaning giving credit to societal values and symbolic attributes related to social innovation.