Socially innovative spatial planning: insights from within and beyond a LEADER framework

The aim of this article is to understand how socially innovative spatial planning is fostered or impeded within disadvantaged rural areas and to identify the isomorphic dynamics that perpetuate governance failures and curb innovative capacities. This article draws from sociological institutionalist accounts within spatial planning to develop an integrated epistemological tool that traces the institutional qualities that affect the capacity for innovation. Mixed methods research was conducted in the NUTS3 region of Baixo Alentejo; the innovative spatial planning capacities were investigated at both the level of broad governance and the micro-environment of Local Action Groups (LAGs). The findings revealed that despite the enhanced institutional resources possessed by some LAGs, the weak interconnections with the broader governance framework restrict socially innovative spatial planning. In other words, in the absence of a strong governance chain of innovation, even the most empowered links might prove trivial.