Promoting Social Innovation Through Action Research: Evidence from an Empirical Study in the Fisheries Sector of Ukerewe District in Tanzania

This paper highlights the important role of action research in triggering and promoting social innovation processes in communities. By conceptualising social innovation as a process involving the development and delivery of new ideas for improving human capabilities and social relations, we argue that well-designed and well-executed action research can provide participants with opportunities to reflect on and develop shared understandings of individual and societal challenges and their possible solutions. Well-designed and well-executed action research also can provide participants with opportunities to critique and test proposed novel ideas, strategies, services and products, thereby determining their effectiveness or ineffectiveness in facilitating the realisation of envisioned social, economic and political goals. Drawing on evidence from empirical research undertaken in the fisheries sector of Ukerewe District in Tanzania, where small-scale fishers cogently argued for and positioned themselves as “constrained wealth creators” instead of poor actors, we illustrate how the provision of adequate spaces for dialogue enables the unveiling of innovative ideas and solutions to individual, sectoral and societal challenges.